


potential in before, same in the afters

by MementoMoriPontifexMortis



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, But like everyone gets attention, Cisco Centric, F/M, Female Cisco Ramon, Heel Face Turn, Though Angst, Villain Cisco, slight mental instability
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-09-23 18:44:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9671327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MementoMoriPontifexMortis/pseuds/MementoMoriPontifexMortis
Summary: Francisca Ramon walked out of STAR Labs two months after the particle accelerator exploded. Vibrance walked into Central City several months later. Cisco Ramon walked back into STAR Labs two years after she came back wrong, wanting to make amends for everything(AKA: that one story where Cisco's tired of being a petty villain and tries to get her life back and joins Team Flash, Caitlin's struggling because life has never been kind to her and Barry's just an impossibly cute cupcake.)Takes place in season 2.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TinyTeddy878](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyTeddy878/gifts).



> ....blame TinyTeddy878??? 
> 
> Okay, I take full blame. I don't know why but Rule!63 Cisco was a thing I wanted and so I wrote it to this idea I had been working on in my head. Liberties with science and physics and doctor things have been taken, I mean I've done research but English was my thing, not math and science. 
> 
> Title is taken from Needtobreathe's song, _We Could Run Away_
> 
> _'It's easy to find potential in before_  
>  but we look the same in the afters'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dubious science is dubious!! 
> 
> Also Cisco is about/most likely 23 in season 2 which is when this story takes place so that's how old Cisco is!

In the comics, the female villains always dressed skanky; short skirts and tight tiny tops, tight leotards and ripped leggings, skin tight clothing and some form of high heels. Clothing, that while pretty, wasn’t very practical. Nothing against them or anything, Cisco thought, but she had tried that for a little and found that she didn’t not possess the ability to heal fast and so showing any bit of skin that was important – which really was all of it – was sorta, maybe, really stupid.

She had gone the route of short skirts, tight tops and ripped leggings and found that cops, when they do shoot at you, go for vulnerable and important places. Her belly, which was showing because her top was like three sizes too small, was one of those places. Vibrating a bullet out of your solar plexus was painful and messy as all heck. Not to mention, she had almost tripped on the badass longcoat she had worn for a bit of flair. Needless to say, that was not a route she had went down again.

She had then tried the leotard route and while that wasn’t as bad as the tiny clothing, the heels had tripped her up. They say all women will eventually learn to run in heels, well she could see the future sometimes and it looked pretty bleak on that front for her. Plus, cops –- and the goddamn Flash -- did not care if you tripped while running. They did not care if you cut your knee while falling, well, the Flash did a bit, but the cops did not. Cisco had dropped that route three days into it becoming part of her regular wear.

Last had been the tight clothing and that had been a failure from the start. Let it be known that Francisca Isabella Ramon had body issues and had them all her life. It was, for the most part, why her normal clothing had been regulated to baggy nerd t-shirts and some form of jeans, camos and khakis. So tight clothing had been a mistake, so much of a mistake that while she had been breaking into a bank, she had stopped to ask her hostages if she looked alright. And no, that wasn’t the beginning of some stupid ‘woman are vain’ jokes that seemed to be half of all comedians’ sets, but was a serious question. She had felt off, the vibrations had felt off and so she had to ask. Straight to say, after a month of second guessing herself and questioning how the Flash ran around looking like an idiot in red spandex without feeling bad about himself, Cisco had cut the tight clothing out.

So really, she wasn’t doing so good on the female villain front. She couldn’t stand any outfit choice they had so she had went more with a male villain outfit; black t-shirts, black army pants with as many pockets as possible so she could carry her equipment and a long black badass trench coat. The coat was because she had grown fond of the thing in her spare time and that it kinda really looked cool as she turned her back after her crime was done; really she based her entire villain aesthetic off of trying too look cool and be practical and be reminiscent of her comics and that wasn’t that easy.

It worked out though; her clothing was practical, her black knee length lace up boots were practical, her hair pulled into a bun was practical, she was a practical villain. Just only had one problem with her set up, which had taken her the entire two years to figure out: she wasn’t good at being a villain. Honestly, when she had first started off, she had a little part of her telling her that over and over again, but the darker vibrations had cut that part off just a few days into her villain start and before she knew it, it was easier to listen to those dark thoughts then to try and find the light that was attempting to spill in.

She kinda wished she did though, because two years was a long time to make enemies and she had quite a few and while she knew she had acquaintances on her side of the fight who would help her, she wasn’t sure she wanted their help. She didn’t want to be doing bad anymore. Two years of causing minimal terror to Central City, antagonizing the Flash and just all around being a giant jerk had taken it’s toll on her mind and she wasn’t quite right (not that she was in the right mind when she started her reign of terror, really) in the mind anymore.

Cisco looked around her empty apartment, she wished she had her old one back. The one where she held all those great memories of her and Caitlin and Ronnie and Dr. Wells hanging out after long nights working in the lab. Occasionally, she’d be nice enough to invite Hartley, but for the most part, he stayed the hell out of her safe spots and that was what her apartment was to her. It was why she had left it behind, it was too safe for her, too emotional and when her powers were first appearing, it was too dangerous to be somewhere where the vibes would’ve assaulted her as badly as it would’ve.

Her hands itched to reach out into the vibrations, to find Caitlin while she worked, or to find Dr. Wells, or to even search for Hartley. She just wanted some connection into her old life for even a few seconds but no, she stopped herself before that thought went too far. She had no right to do that, no right to search them out and know how they were and everything that had been going on with them while they didn’t know. So no, she wasn’t going to vibe for them, if she wanted to see them, if she wanted a connection into her old life, she would do what she should’ve done all those months ago: change her direction and ditch the villain scene.

It would be hard, seriously hard. She wasn’t sure if she hadn’t burnt every bridge she had ever made when she walked out of STAR Labs two years ago – not that she had been particularly lucid at the time, hours spent watching Mr. Allen while he was laid up in a coma and fiddling and just dealing with her own problems had left her little time for sleeping so when her powers kicked in or whatever, she wasn’t fully aware of herself and what she was doing – but she doubted showing back up as a villain really secured any.

She could barely remember that day, but she could remember that she hadn’t even realized she had left the safety of STAR Labs until she was halfway to Starling City and by then her brain was hurting more and more that she just followed. The voices, the vibrations, the sounds and smells and lights, she followed them all. She realized, a few months after getting herself back, that she had been drifting in and out of timelines and different dimensions, but again, by then she was already a player on the side of the bad guys and had already given herself a name for people to fear.

Biting her lip, Cisco slumped down on the designer black couch and really wow, did she have a lot of black for a person that had once worn colorful clothing and ate colorful food and was just a colorful person. Was this what being a villain did to you? Change your clothing taste and made you hate yourself? If so, why didn’t every villain turn themselves in? Which was what she was going to do. Hopefully she’d be able to crack a deal with them.

Caitlin had been her friend and as cold as she could be when angry, which was what she’d definitely be when Cisco came back, there was no way she’d be angry forever and maybe the thought of Cisco coming back and being good would help with how angry she was. It was an unlikely and rather hopeful thought, but she would hold onto it because before she went down this dark path, she had been happy and hopeful and she remembered all her favorite candies and she really wanted a sucker right now.

No, Cisco thought, focus on your thoughts.

Most hopefully, Dr. Wells would take her back. He had been her hero and the thought that she might have gone too far for him to forgive her cut like a knife. He had saved her from the life of a nobody that she was probably destined to live. He had given her her job. Had given her the hope that they were making the future better for everyone. They were doing good and while she may have stomped on that and went evil anyway, the fact that she wasn’t the evilest seemed like a really good thing in her mind. Like, really. She had seen timelines, dimensions where she was just a grade A bully to the world, so like, point to her, right?

Well, okay, so her hope actually only laid with Mr. Flash himself and while she knew he was a more forgiving then the other two, she wasn’t sure how forgiving he would be to her. She did constantly vibe his speed away and she did hold his pretty reporter friend hostage for a little and she constantly broke the law and well, there was that one time she invaded the police force in hopes of luring him because she wanted to test one of her new toys out on him but…

Yeah, wow. She was really a jerk. She screwed up her face before she ran her hands down it. Yeah, no, she was not being forgiven most likely. Really, she wouldn’t even forgive herself with everything she had done, but she didn’t want to not change her ways. She just had to figure out a way to make it so they wouldn’t be able to say no.

Simple. She was a genius, she had come up with dozens of plans that had worked and she was damn sure she could figure out a good plan to make them believe her and her change. Yeah, it would all work out, Cisco decided. She wasn’t letting this moment of clarity slip through her fingers, she was changing. She was going to be a good guy again and the way was inside STAR Labs.

                                                                                                                               

* * *

 

 

If she showed trepidation as she waltzed up the hill to stand at the edge of the STAR Labs parking lot, who could blame her? For a long part of her life, over two years, she had worked tirelessly on the particle accelerator. She had given so many hours to the thing, had given it all her best thoughts and all her hopes and for 45 minutes did it last. Two years of her life and in a spanning of minutes, mere minutes, did she watch it blow up.

Literally.

So, trepidation, fear, all those good emotions that she had since learned to control in hopes of controlling her powers, yeah, they all smacked into her. For a brown girl walking around at night, she was pretty pale if she did say so herself and she did. She felt all her blood drain from her face as she walked closer and closer to the building that stole her life from her. That gave her these powers and turned her this way.

No! She had made a vow to herself in the memory of Ronnie that she wasn’t going to ever let herself blame anyone but herself for her actions. Yes, she had been influenced slightly, but she, in the end, made the choices she made. Did it hurt to admit that? Yes. But did it matter if it hurt if it was the truth? Not really.

And she was done lying to herself. She had been doing it for so long that it felt a bit like second nature, but she was ready to change. Ready to ignore the vibrations for a little and follow who she really was meant to be.

She steeled herself and kept walking, vibrating the lock on the chain link fence open and crossing into the parking lot. She searched out for any additional vibrations that spoke of someone being there, but she found none. They’d be there though, when she tripped whatever alarms that surrounded this place. They’d be there.

She just hoped they didn’t take long because she didn’t want to sit in STAR Labs by herself for too long. She was scared, terrified that being alone here would make the meaner Ciscos louder but she would do it. Being strong, being brave meant pushing through the terror and standing tall. It was not letting anything stand in her way as she walked the good path.

Yeah, she was done being scared. She was ready. Her hand reached out to touch the security panel, begging that they didn’t revoke her access. The door beeped open and she sucked in a breath. The last time she was here… - the last time she was here, she was walking out the front door, her mind a slurry of worlds disappearing in and out. She hadn’t been her the last time she was here, she had been herself the three days before she left. She had been cheerful, bought a new bag of candy to shove in her drawer and had been ready to start solving the firemen dilemma.

Three days, she spent working on the fireman outfit. Three days of not sleeping, hyped up on candy and sugar and fast food that was greasy as heck. Three days of continual coffee, different energy drinks that made her feel like she could hear colors and more cold showers than really she liked. Three days, that was all it took. At some point during those three days, her powers had turned on.

Her shoes squeaked against the clean, cold floor and she remembered when she first walked down the hallway, her hands at her side, taking in everything. At the time, Dr. Wells had been talking to her, explaining everything that she would be doing and talking to her about her co-workers. He took the time to introduce her to people as they walked, pointed out the rooms where she could take late night breaks and gave her a pep talk right before she entered the Cortex. It was the hub of everything, Dr. Wells had said, where she would share ideas with the others and they'd have meetings.

She had been terrified she wasn't going to fit in or that she was going to screw up somehow. Sure, she was smart but everyone who worked there was more than smart, they were brilliant and amazing, something she wasn't sure she was. All those emotions, all those thoughts left her mind the moment she was given her first project. She had finally found a place she could call home. And she had.

For two years Francisca Ramon had a home, a place where she had friends and people who wanted to hear her ideas. Then the accident destroyed her home, taking her friends and all those people, leaving her wrong and screwing up the vibrations. For two years she had everything she had ever wanted and a tiny little mistake had taken it all away in seconds.

Funny how the world worked, she thought as her eyes swept over the Cortex's interior. Nothing had really changed. The glass office offshoots looked the same as when she had left, maybe a tad neater. The center still held a medical bed, though absent of Mr. Allen and Cisco bet that if she opened the bottom drawer of the centered metal desk, she'd find her hidden supply of lollipops. She wasn't going to though, she wasn't prepared for the rush of emotions she would feel either way. No, she was going to plop her bag on the floor and hop up on the medical bed. They wouldn't take long so she could just rest her eyes against the assault that the vibrations were doing to her mind.

                                                                                                     

* * *

 

 

“Oh my god!”

Okay, so ‘not too long’ was actually the entire night. Who would’ve guessed. Jolting up in her bed, her dark eyes scanned the room and froze on the sight of Caitlin. She would notice Dr. Wells standing behind her best friend later, but at the moment, her eyes were on Caitlin and her shocked face.

“Caitlin.” She breathed, the word coming out low as it forced it’s way through the big smile on her face. It had been years since she saw Caitlin, actual honest to goodness years. She had been purposely ignoring the other woman, trying her hardest to never seek her out or be at places where she knew she shopped or ate or any of that. “You look good.”

Caitlin stared before fiddling with her purse, dragging out her phone and pressing buttons. She gave her a one second look before jolting from the room. Cisco let her eyes follow her friend before the vibrations snapped at her, reminding her of the fact that they weren’t friendly and hadn’t been friendly in a while. Her hands moved to sit in her lap as she waited, she was sure that Caitlin was calling the Flash or the cops and she itched to run. But she didn’t, the weight of everything she had done in the two years keeping her sitting.

A few minutes later when Caitlin walked back in, Cisco gave her another smile. “Hi, sorry for scaring you.”

“You surprised me.” Caitlin said, her voice cool. She moved to sit, her face impassable as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You haven’t been by in two years.”

“Been busy.”

“I know.”

Wow, cold. Understandably so, but still, cold. Cisco sighed in the room and looked to her, “Caitlin, I’m… I’m sorry. I’m here because I’m prepared to change--”

Whoa. Words cut off as the blur that is the Flash zoomed into the room, hands on his waist as he stared at her through the slits of his familiar looking costume. A minute later and Detective Joe West of the CCPD and pretty reporter Iris West walked in, Detective West ready to arrest her.

“Wait!” She said, getting up from the bed and moving back, “Just wait okay, I can explain why I’m here.”

“You better explain really quickly then.” Caitlin mumbled.

Cisco bit her lip and nodded, keeping a nice distance from herself and them, “I am here because I want to be a good guy now. I’m tired of being a bad guy. I want to- you can ask Caitlin. I’m a good person, for the most part, and I don’t want to be a bad guy. I don’t want to hurt people anymore.” Her words sounded desperate, a plea that she was terrified they’d ignore. “I just want to be good again.”

She looked to Caitlin, the only person in the room who knew her before everything went wrong and she tried to convey everything she was feeling. It was hard though, the vibrations were harder in the center of everything and she was getting some terrifying images in her mind. She filtered them though, forcing them to the back of her mind, but everything she did had no effect on the headache that was forming.

“Can I talk to them alone.” Caitlin asked after a moment, moving from the spot where she had rooted herself and towards the entrance.

“Of course, Cait.”

“Don’t. You don’t get to call me that, Ms. Ramon.” She growled and Cisco nodded, hands up in surrender.

“Got it.”

They left her to stand right at the entrance, able to watch her and study what she did but far enough away that they had the privacy that they wanted. She could eavesdrop, the vibrations would allow her to, but she didn’t want to lose their trust. She wandered around the room, waiting. She would wait until they were done and if they said no, she would just wait until the day they said yes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave a comment telling me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caitlin's thoughts, a little bit of plot and the AU continues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd give you guys more than just the first chapter bc this has more meat to it and probs be a better read with chapter one.

Caitlin had been waiting for this day. At the time when she first started waiting, it was just her being hopeful. She had wanted her friend back, more than anything but she hadn’t really thought she would. Cisco was gone, she was lost and when she came back, she was evil. It was painful, watching someone who had been so nice, so kind and caring, destroy the windows of a bank and throw the guards back with powers that Caitlin hadn’t known she had. She didn’t let anyone see her cry after Barry had lost to Cisco and the other woman had went underground, but she had.

When Cisco first went missing, Caitlin had pulled out all the stops. Fake Dr. Wells had as well. The cops came in and did their job about recording everything, but really there wasn’t anything they could do when they had a tape of said missing person getting up from their seat, eyes glazed over and walking out of the compound. They had filed the paperwork, notified Cisco’s family and did a very basic and preliminary search for her that turned up nothing. Joe had tried to keep them updated every time he visited Barry but some cases go cold and Cisco’s went cold. Very cold.

A month after Barry woke up, Cisco rolled back in town. Only it wasn’t really Cisco, it was ‘Vibrance’. Her friend had gone missing for over six months and then just a little after Caitlin was getting used to be alone, she showed back up to do evil. It hadn’t felt fair at the time. Her career was over, her boss was paralyzed, she had lost her fiance and then her friend had gone missing; it had felt like the world was playing a particularly cruel joke on her. Sure, she had gained Barry and Joe and Iris as friends but she would never be as close to them as she was to Cisco.

“How did she get in here Caitlin, I thought no one could.” Joe asked, obviously looking towards her.

“I don’t know.” She sighed, “I guess, my fault.” They looked towards her, different amounts of confusion evident on their faces. She’d have to explain everything, give them something on Cisco but she felt that giving them anything would be betrayal for the other woman. Clasping her hands over her face, she swallowed.

“She – Vibrance – used to work here. She was one of our mechanical engineers, one of the best. She, um, her name is Francisca Ramon, she went missing a few weeks after we brought Barry back here. She wandered out of the facility and the cops could never find her.”

Joe’s eyes light up and they shot over to stare at Cisco pacing the Cortex. “That’s Ms. Ramon?”

“Yes.” Caitlin nodded, “I didn’t change her security clearance when Rathaway updated the security. We, Dr. Wells and I, were supposed to delete her security profile immediately after her departure but when I told him that, he said that there was nothing wrong with us holding out hopes for her return. After that, everything became to hectic and I never, when Hartley talked about removing her, I couldn’t let him. I’m sorry.”

“Caitlin, it’s not your fault. You were holding out hopes that your friend would come back.” Iris said, moving forward to wrap an arm around her.

“Yeah, and she did, possibly to kill us all.”

“I don’t think so.” Barry said, finally speaking up, “I mean, she’s a menace alright, but she’s pretty cool.”

Joe lifted an eyebrow, “Pretty cool? She robs banks, disrupts the peace and can I remind you of the several times she’s held the department hostage to lure you in?”

“Yeah, I know,” He said, but he shrugged, “But, she lures me in so she can test new designs and y’know we talk. She’s not like the other villains I’ve gone up against. She’s not doing this for fun.”

“Then why is she doing this?” Caitlin asked, her voice growing hard, “Why does she taunt you? Last month, she kidnapped Iris, took her out for a movie and dinner – when you interrupted the movie, she blasted your speed away and had her little thugs take you outside and kick you around.”

“I know.”

“I’m actually sorry about that!” Cisco called from behind them, “I thought it’d be great to have a movie night, like before and last time I kidnapped Ms. West, she said ‘We should do this again,’ and, well, granted she probably meant it sarcastically, I kinda wanted to and.. s-sorry.”

Caitlin glared, “How can you hear us?”

“My powers. I’ll stop now. Sorry, I didn’t meant to. Your vibrations flare when angry.” At least she sounded contrite. “Can I see Dr. Wells though. I wanted, I have things I have to ask him.”

She forced down a distress noise as she covered Barry’s open mouth, “Dr. Wells is busy. You know he does paperwork this early and doesn’t like being bugged.” She lied, her eyes conveying the message to them all. They were to keep Dr. Wells and his secret a secret.

“Okay. That’s fine. I'll be quiet now.”

She removed the hand covering Barry’s mouth and started formulating a plan. “We have to put her in the pipeline until we either figure out what she wants or she tells us.”

“She’s already told us.” Barry argued and Caitlin sighed.

“Until she tells us the truth then.”

“And if this is the truth.” He asked, arms crossing over his chest.

“Then until we get proof that this isn’t some big plot to kill us all, she’s going in the pipeline.” Caitlin said, copying his stance. Her glare won out and Barry groaned, nodding his head slightly. Iris and Joe sighed and they left their huddle and moved back into the Cortex. If Cisco fought them on this, it was obvious that she was trying to play them, but if she went silently, then maybe Caitlin would think of forgiving her.

“So,” Cisco said, turning towards them with her ten thousand kilowatt smile, “what’s the plan?”

Caitlin stumbled for a moment, righting herself as quickly as she could and cleared her throat, “You are going to a cell in the pipeline. If you’re serious about changing sides, then when we need you, you won’t hesitate helping us on missions.” She replied, “If you’re not then, well you can leave right now.”

Cisco frowned but nodded, “I understand. I’ll go, put me in whatever cell you need to. I’m not changing my mind on this. They’ve won out for too long. I’m done being bad.”

“Then let’s go.”

Barry moved forward, but Cisco stopped him, grabbing her own bag off the ground as Caitlin turned on her heel. She wanted to reach out and comfort her ex-best friend but she couldn’t. Even if it were Cisco’s powers that had lured her into being bad, it was Cisco who did everything. Caitlin couldn’t just forgive her because she made vague references to being influenced by powers that neither of them wanted. Especially when Caitlin managed her own alter ego well enough.

The cold inside her wanted to do bad as well, but if she could hold it back; create a damn and keep the evil at bay, then certainly Cisco could’ve. Cisco, who in her first week there, learn everyone’s name – even the janitors – and greeted them whenever she walked by. Cisco, who bought candy and placed it in a drawer for everyone and shared it so willingly. Cisco who shared everything willingly, a smile, a shoulder, her hope and dreams and her goodness. It brought a deep cold to Caitlin’s gut because if Cisco couldn’t control her own powers then how could she, herself, continue to. Cisco was pure goodness, Caitlin wasn’t.

Steeling her nerves, Caitlin decided that after putting Cisco in the cell and coming up with some plan with Harry, she’d call Ronnie and ask him to come by. He’d want to see Cisco as well, they had been close and finding out that Cisco had gone missing and then evil had hurt him too. Yeah, that was her plan.

                                                                                                                  

* * *

 

 

Caitlin tried to ignore Cisco sharp intake as they entered the pipeline and she started to call forward a cell, but it was heartbreaking. She knew what this place meant to Cisco and that for Cisco, it was the last place that she ever saw Ronnie and the place where her career died. She turned to her and flashed her a smile. “Dr. Wells came up with the idea of putting the metahumans we arrested in the pipeline. There’s some power dampening technology so it seemed like the best bet. Can’t exactly put them at Iron Heights, could we.”

“No, we couldn’t.” Cisco said offhandedly. She seemed like she was drifting. “Caitlin, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about Ronnie. If I could, I’d go back and save him.”

The words echoed in her brain and Caitlin forced back tears, “Ronnie’s fine, Cisco. He didn’t die, at least not really.” The words slipped from her mouth before she could stop them. If this was her, being brought back to the place she thought her friend had died, she’d want to know. “He’s actually going to be back later tonight. I promise you, he’s fine.”

Cisco’s head snapped towards her and frowned, “What?” She asked, “But we, we were out here and he-”

“The explosions gave him powers, he’s half of a metahuman duo.” Caitlin replied, “Firestorm. He’s Firestorm. Like I said, he’s coming by later tonight. I’ll send him your way.”

It was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders and Cisco grinned, nodding as well. “Okay, I can’t wait.” She said as she entered the cell that stood at the mouth of the pipeline, “Thank you for telling me Caitlin, thank you.”

Caitlin gave a small smile as the cell drifted back and went out of view, her body slumping once she was alone. The others’ had opted to stay in the Cortex and she appreciated that. She hadn't wanted to do that with an audience, not when her own resolve at locking Cisco up was so weak. Wiping her palms on her dress, she pressed the intercom button for Cisco's cell and cleared her throat. "We bring lunch at noon, a snack at quarter to four and dinner at eight sharp. If you have any preferences the cells are equipped with very basic tablets that you can send messages to us on. If you need anything send a message." She removed her finger and turned to leave.

It felt wrong to leave Cisco in there, even with the knowledge that Ronnie wasn't dead, the pipeline was still the place where her career was killed and it probably would taunt her as she stared out at it. But they had no where else. And Cisco had done enough petty crimes to land herself in there. Just because she didn't want to imprison her ex best friend didn't mean she didn't have to.

She walked slowly towards the Cortex, pulling out her phone as she did. Her fingers hovered over Ronnie's number, she wanted to hear his voice, really wanted to but she had no idea what to say. She opened a new text and began typing.

TO: Ronnie  
Hey.

TO: Cait  
hey.  
Evrythng okay?

TO: Ronnie  
Not really.  
Cisco came back.  
She says she wants to be good.  
We put her in the pipeline.  
But…  
Can you come back?

TO: Cait  
ofc cait  
we’ll leave rn  
& brt

TO: Ronnie  
Okay.  
Thanks.  
I love you.  
Be safe.

With that out of the way, she could worry about other things. Bigger things such as Harry who had been standing behind her as she walked in earlier and who she had pushed into another room as she had made her exit to call in reinforcements. Sighing, she pushed her hair back and walked quickly, she wanted to talk to the others before they had to leave for their day jobs.

“You get her comfortable?” Barry asked as soon as she walked in. He, along with Iris and Joe, were standing about the screens. They showed Cisco sitting on the cell floor, her legs crossed while she stared out at the blankness that was the empty pipeline. Her eyes were half-lidded and she had shrugged her long coat off and onto the little bed. She looked fine, happy even to a point and Caitlin sighed as she leaned down and slid into a chair next to the screens.

“She’s fine, obviously.” Caitlin replied, waving a hand at the screens. “Only problem is him.” She said, pointing to Harry.

“Yeah, why didn’t you let us tell her about Dr. Wells?” Iris questioned, moving to sit next to her.

“She can not find out.” Caitlin said, facing all of them with her most serious face. “Dr. Wells was her hero, he basically saved her from living a blue collar life and wasting her genius. If she finds out that he was, that he was evil and not even who he said he was--. No, finding out will break her. She can’t find out. Harry has to pretend to be Dr. Wells, it’s the only way.”

“And what happens when she finds out I’m not who I’m supposed to be?” Harry rasped, a marker in his hands as he walked up to stand next to her. “Which will definitely happen.”

Caitlin threw up her hands, “I don’t know!” A cold burst of air pushed back her hair and papers rustled as the air fanned out, hitting the walls with force that they began icing over slightly. She sighed, annoyed at herself for her losing control. She pulled in the cold, retracting the frost and breathing in. “Sorry, I just-”

“She pushes a certain button,” Iris finished for her, “It’s okay.”

“Cisco was my best friend. She was all I had left after thinking Ronnie died and losing her, watching her walk away on that screen broke me. When she came back evil, it was easy to separate Cisco from Vibrance.”

Iris smiled, “What was she like before?”

“Funny, but in like, the socially awkward way. She cracked all these superhero jokes and y’know the candy drawer? It’s hers. Well, it was. She started it up.” Caitlin smiled at the memory, “She always used to bring in lollipops and other candies and would hand them out during throughout the day. Hartley hated her for it. Gosh, they hated each other, and she just took it in stride.”

“She sounds amazing.”

“She was. Ronnie and I, we became instant friends with her and we weren’t the only ones. Cisco was really just a good person.” Caitlin breathed in, “That’s why we have to keep Dr. Wells’s secret from her. So while you guys do your day jobs, I’m going to be over here giving Harry a breakdown on her. Hopefully Ronnie will show up quickly enough to help, but regardless, it’s the plan.”

“And Zoom?” Harry asked, “Because this has nothing to do with him as far as I can see, nor does it have anything to do with me getting my daughter back.”

“If,” Caitlin said, already knowing what he was going to say, “If Cisco is good, then we can use her powers to fight Zoom. She does some weird thing where she shoots a vibration blast at Barry and it disrupts his entire abilities. He can’t run, he can’t heal. That might be useful against Zoom, won’t it?”

She could almost hear the gears in his head running and he nodded, “Okay, fine.” He acquiesced after a moment. “Since she could be helpful.”

“Good, now let me get her file and we can start with that.”

 

* * *

 

Ronnie and Dr. Stein interrupted them two hours in and Harry halted the entire thing after realizing that he’d have to sit in a wheelchair for the entire conversation he would be having with Cisco and by the time Barry zoomed in at half past 5, Caitlin felt more tired than she had when she first found out her boss was actually a homicidal manic from the future. Granted, they got pretty far; Harry had managed to memorize Cisco’s entire childhood and her skills – he complimented them after learning she had built Barry's supersuit on three days of no sleep.

"This is useless!"

"No, this is progress, Cait." Ronnie leaned over and kissed her forehead, "Look honey, you knew this was going to take time."

"But this is going to take too long. Cisco is going to get suspicious if this takes too long." Caitlin argued, pulling Cisco's files close to her. She felt protective of the words written inside.

"Caitlin," Ronnie pulled the folders from her arms, handing them to Harry. "Let's leave these with Harry so he can study these while we go visit Cisco with a snack."

She hesitated but Ronnie was pulling her by her arm and no matter how much she dragged her feet, she did want to go see the other woman. "Okay, go get the snack, let me just finish cleaning up."

He smiled and kissed her on the lips, before drifting out of the room. Caitlin smiled to herself before turning to Harry, "Okay while we go there, you can learn about her projects that Fake Dr. Wells gave her: here's the list of projects she completed, the list of projects she finished planning and here's the list of ones she hadn't started to even look at. There's also a list of personal projects that she worked on during her free time." She held out the stapled paper and watched as he flipped through the words, his eyes giving them appreciated looks.

She felt proud of her (ex) friend, to get any form of approval from the man was a hard feat and the fact that she had gotten it before actually meeting him, was good. Turning away, she left the Cortex and met with Ronnie at the mouth of the pipeline. "Did you call it forth?" She asked.

“No, not yet.” Ronnie said. He had set down the plate of snacks on the cabinet that they had installed for when they were delivering food. She turned, ready to press the button when he stopped her. “Let’s talk for a moment.”

“Ronnie, I’m just here to give her her snacks and leave you two talking. You’re going to spend a half and hour in her cell, which I’m going to be monitoring in the Cortex and then I’m going to come get you when that time is up.” Caitlin recited the plan again, it still not settling in her stomach. “It’s fine. I trust you to be able to take care of yourself.”

“But do you trust Cisco?” He asked.

Caitlin paused, thinking the words over. She didn’t trust Cisco, not anymore. Her brain told her she couldn’t, it was too dangerous to and the cold inside her whispered to never trust anyone anymore. There was a little part of her, a long forgotten part of her, that talked softly about how close she was to Cisco, how she was best friends with the other woman and how she could always trust Cisco no matter what. She ignored that little part and focused on the other parts. “I don’t. She’s been a villain for two years and I think that she’s hiding things from us.”

“Yet, you’re willing to let me sit in her cell with her for the next half hour?” Ronnie lifted an eyebrow, grinning at her.

“You will be under constant watch and you are physically stronger than her. If there’s a problem, you can subdue her and Barry can run down here and get you out.” Caitlin said, her voice clear. She had thought everything through, she was prepared for everything that could happen.

“Come on, you don’t trust her even a little? I mean, you kept her credentials in the systems.”

She sighed, shaking her head. “No, and I don’t know why all of you keep asking me that. I kept her credentials in the system because I was holding out hope and then I forgot. I’ve had a lot of things on my plate and I’m only a meta human.” She finished with a small smile, “Come on, let’s get you inside and we can talk about this later.”

He nodded and watched as she called the cell forward, fiddling with his fingers. She knew he must’ve felt nervous, he had been asking about her since he showed up. Less then a minute later, the cell drifted into view and Caitlin could see Cisco sitting cross legged on the floor. The fact that she didn’t sleep or sit on bed at all annoyed her a bit. She had been the one to pick out the mattresses and the blankets; for the most part Ronnie had done most of the work on the cells, along with Dr. Wells, but she had picked out all the features.

Cisco opened her eyes as the door to the cell and blinked as Ronnie bent down, holding out the bowl that had been filled with different candies. “Lollipop?” He asked and Caitlin smiled a bit as Cisco teared up and wrapped her arms around his neck. When Caitlin first introduced Cisco to Ronnie, it had been instant friendship and she never felt resentment towards them. Hartley had tried to stir the pot between them, asking if she felt jealous that her fiance was hanging out with ‘a pretty exotic young thing’ instead of with her. Caitlin had scoffed and ignored him because at the end of the day, Cisco was her best friend and Ronnie her fiance and they were best friends and that was it.

“I’ll be back in half-hour.” Caitlin said, her hand reaching to close the door. It was going to stay at the mouth of the pipeline but they weren’t trusting Cisco to not escape so the door stayed close.

“You’re not staying?” Cisco asked, moving to sit on the bed with her knees up next to her chest. Ronnie sat next to her, looking at her with that smile on her face and Caitlin felt the urge to join them but no, she shook her head.

“No, sorry. I’ve got work to do.” She felt bad, even though she didn’t need to and continued with, “But I talked with Dr. Wells, he’s going to visit you tomorrow morning.”

Cisco perked up. “Really?”

“Yeah, so I’ve got to go plan everything and work out some problems. I’ll be back later.” Caitlin pressed the button and turned, a feeling of emptiness as she walked out of the room.

The walk back to the Cortex was lonely, even though she wasn’t used to walking with anyone on a normal day, with both Ronnie and Cisco in the facility, her mind drifted back to when everything was normal. Back then, during their lunch hours, they could all be found walking the halls, talking about work or something, hands holding some kind of fast food bowl or wrap. They were always huddled together, their heads working through each of the problems they were having. Dr. Wells would join them occasionally, putting his head together with theirs and joining them for lunch or dinner or whatever it was they were eating.

They were the closest and while it didn’t seem strange at all at the time, after losing Dr. Wells, she came to realize that how close a relationship she, Ronnie, Cisco and the Fake Dr. Wells had was weird. He was their boss, yet he never acted like it to any of his workers, he always pretended to be friends with them.

Which was another reason why she wasn’t going to trust Cisco until she proved herself trustworthy. She had enough of the ‘I’m trustworthy, I’m your friend, watch as a I stab you in the back’ from Eobard Thawne and she wasn’t having it anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason why Caitlin has her powers will be explained later in another chapter. Also, yes, Ronnie's alive bc I cannot kill him okay. Also her entire plans are just the plans of a very desperate person.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A secret is revealed, a little bit of mood whiplash and a cliffhanger!

Cisco never liked being in small spaces, she hated it ever since Dante locked her in her the dryer for several hours when she was 6 and they were playing hide and seek, but there was something comforting about being in the pipeline cell. It felt nice to be cut off from her powers, even though that wasn’t really fully true. She could still access the timelines and dimensions in her mind but only by vision. She couldn’t actually jump to any of them and she definitely couldn’t control the vibrations she felt. She was without the other voices as well which brought a bit of happiness to her.

Her legs crossed and the emptiness of the pipeline calming her, she stared out listening to the other prisoners yell and scream from their cages. Some of them stayed quiet, willing to live the rest of their time out in the comfort of their cage – which was actually really comfortable, Caitlin did a great job designing the cells. The bed, from what little she touched on it, felt comfortable and when she was ready to sleep, she was going to enjoy it. Also, the fact that they catered to the prisoners wants was a bit of a check mark for them. Instead of making this a life draining prison, they made it a nice rehabilitation center.

Leaning back and sighing, Cisco laid down on the floor, her hand reaching for the suckers Ronnie had left her. Her cell was back in it’s place and Ronnie had left not long after Barry showed up 45 minutes into Ronnie’s visit. She had talked with the speedster, learned his real name and got a few pointers on being a good guy from him before he sent her back, reluctantly.

It weirded her out the fact that he trusted her right out after everything she did, but at the same time it was nice. It was nice to know that even though he had gone through so much – she had seen it from the vibrations coming off of him – he was still a loving and trusting person. He still cared well enough about everyone that he trusted her without really knowing much about her except that she was once a friend of Caitlin’s and was once a good guy.

“You okay in there?” Barry’s voice called from the speaker in the corner of the room. Next to it was a black little circle camera and Cisco glanced up at it with a smile.

“I’m fine.” She replied, looking back out at the pipeline. “You okay wherever you guys are?”

“Yeah, Caitlin’s just annoyed you aren’t meditating on the bed.” He said, and Cisco laughed when she heard the sound of Caitlin hitting Barry. “Ow, Caitlin, that hurt.”

“I’m not meditating. I’m just sitting here.”

There was a beat of silence and then Caitlin’s voice said over the speaker, “Oh. Why are you doing that?”

Cisco paused before answering. She wasn’t exactly sure but it beat just sitting there staring at the wall or something. She bit her lip and then looked up, “The vibrations are quiet right now. It’s never really been like that before and it’s the first time in a long time that I’ve had alone time with my own thoughts.” She paused again before continuing, “I’m used to filtering worlds and timelines through my brain but I don’t have to right now, not really. It’s not overwhelming anymore.”

Silence. She had grown so used to not having any that when she got it, it weirded her out. There seemed to be two minutes of silence before the speaker crackled to life. “Ms. Ramon.” Dr. Wells said.

Cisco gasped and stood up quickly, “Dr. Wells,” She said as she looked around the cell. His voice was rich as always but there was something wrong with it. A sort of raspy quality that it never held before.

“Ms. Ramon, I would like to talk more about your powers tomorrow when we talk.” He said, “In the meantime, if you wouldn’t mind, right now, could you talk more about your skills.”

Cisco frowned slightly but nodded, “Of course I can. I was actually hoping to talk to you about that at some later point.”

 

* * *

 

Caitlin glared at Harry, “What are you doing?” She asked as she muted the mic, watching Cisco stand up.

“I am finding out how much of an asset she is going to be.” He answered, unmuting the mic. “Ms. Ramon, I would like to talk more about your powers tomorrow when we talk. In the meantime though, if you wouldn’t mind, right now, could you talk more about your skills?”

Barry muted the mic and glared at him, “Couldn’t you just ask her all this tomorrow when you fake be her Dr. Wells?” Cisco’s mouth was moving but he wasn’t staring at the screens anymore. “This is rude.”

“Rude? You want me to pretend to be her precious Dr. Wells for you guys so you don’t have to tell her that he was a homicidal maniac from the future that tried to kill you all, and used her genius to create the thing that he wanted to blow up so it could create the Flash and in the end also helped create her own powers that are hurting her.”

They both stared at him as he unmuted the mic again and said, “I would love to talk to you about them. I’ve been going over the spread data we collected when the accident first happened and would love to have another set of eyes.” He sounded so much like the other Dr. Wells that they both flinched slightly. “I believe your brains could help me figure some things out.”

“Of course, Dr. Wells.” Cisco’s voice sounded so innocent to Caitlin that she wished she could tell Cisco the truth: that it wasn’t Dr. Wells she was talking to, that it was another Dr. Wells and the man they trusted wasn’t even Dr. Wells and the man she looked up to had been dead for 15 years.

“For the most part,” Cisco’s voice said, “my powers have to do with the dimensions and time and vibrations, I guess you can say. I don’t fully know. I was hoping you’d help with that.”

“You’ve not figure them out yet.” Harry hummed, “Well, tomorrow we can do some experiments to figure them out. What have you got on them so far though?”

Cisco sighed, but her face was grinning as she spoke. “I hear the other worlds. There are versions of me throughout the entire multiverse, it’s amazing. They can be loud though once they realize that I’m listening. When this first started out, Reverb was the loudest.”

Harry’s face went white but he managed to ask, “Have you managed to open breeches yet?” before he muted the mic.

“What’s the matter? What does the name Reverb mean?” Caitlin asked, sitting next to him.

“Reverb is part of Zoom’s gang, at least on my Earth.” Harry said, “She might know a lot about my Earth and Zoom’s hideout.”

He went to unmute the mic but Caitlin stopped him, “You can’t question her about that. Not yet at least. She thinks you’re Dr. Harrison Wells-”

“I am Dr. Harrison Wells, you’re ridiculous nickname changes nothing!” He yelled, “And she could be the key to finding where my daughter is!”

“What’s going on?” Cisco’s voice called from the screen, but no one paid her any mind. They were arguing too loudly to hear her.

“You’re not our Dr. Wells.” Caitlin pointed out, getting up from her seat and glaring at him, “And she can’t find that out! Which she will if you ask her about Earth-2.”

“She’s going to find out at some point!” Harry argued back, his voice louder than Cisco’s static-y voice. “She’s going to figure it out when I don’t know some secret she and the Fake Dr. Wells had.”

“Guys,” Barry interrupted, staring off behind them.

“Not right now, Barry!” Caitlin yelled, turning her attention back to Harry, “By time she figures it out, I’ll have figured out a way to explain it to her!” She could feel the frost letting loose from her fingers and she worked hard to control how much got free.

“How? You haven’t even figured out how to explain it to her now!” Harry stood, glaring at Caitlin. “You’re only delaying the inevitable because you can’t process it yourself. How are you going to give her a proper explanation when you can’t explain it to yourself?”

“Explain what?” Cisco’s voice cut through Caitlin’s thoughts and she turned, pulling the frost inward and holding in a breath.

“Cisco, how did you get out of your cell?” She asked, ignoring the question.

Cisco frowned, “The cell doesn’t really block out my powers. It dampens them so I concentrated really hard on creating a portal. It’s easier when I’m just jumping from place to place in the same universe.” She replied, stepping forward, looking a lot more like the Cisco Caitlin knew back when everything was normal. Her hair was left down and she stared at them with wide eyes.

“What?”

She ignored them and tilted her head as she stared at Harry. “You’re not Dr. Wells.” She paused and moved closer. He stepped back and she stopped, her dark brown eyes frowning. “At least, not from this world.”

“I’m from...” He sighed, “I’m from this Earth’s Earth-2. It’s a horrible-”

“It’s a horrible place where Zoom rules and there is no real good guys. Your Flash disappeared and Zoom started taking people hostage.” Cisco said, her voice far away. “I’m a bad guy there, so’s Caitlin and Ronnie. It’s weird there: foggy and red.”

She tried to approach him once again, but Harry kept backing away. Cisco paused in her steps and then bit her lip, “What happened to Dr. Wells?” She asked.

Caitlin moved forward, but it was Barry who spoke. “He died.” The words hit Cisco harshly and she stumbled back. Barry continued. “He was not even who he said he was. I’m sorry, Cisco.”

She turned to Caitlin, “Is he…?”

Caitlin nodded, “Barry’s telling the truth. Dr. Wells was lying. He was from the future and wanted to kill Barry.” Cisco stumbled backwards, falling into a chair. Her face went through several changes and Caitlin readied her own powers. She might have been scared of the frost but Barry wasn’t much help against Cisco and she didn’t want Harry to get injured because of her own discomfort.

Cisco stood quickly and threw out a hand, bringing up a watery portal and she jumped inside it, disappearing from the room. Caitlin threw up her own hands and dropped into a chair. “Great, this is just great!” She huffed, “Cisco’s disappeared and we have no idea where she is and -”

“She’s in her cell.” Barry said, leaning over the desk, looking at the screen that held the cell views. “Curled on the bed.”

Caitlin jolted upwards and leaned across the desk, her eyes watching as Cisco curled into herself and face away from the camera, covering herself in the blanket. Soft sobs could be heard from the cell and Caitlin sighed, pressing the button to turn it off. “She knows how to open breeches.” She shot with a glare. “And she knows how to use them.”

“But how the hell did the cell not stop her powers?” Harry asked, his eyes moving to look over the data that was being sent from all the active cells. “You said that it dampened their ability to draw in their powers from the field around the area so that they couldn’t actually use their powers to escape.”

“That’s what Dr. Wells told us when we were designing it.” Barry said, resentful of the accusatory tone used. “Since it held up even against him, we thought it was true.”

“So you believed the man that screwed you over instead of checking!”

“No, we had Hartley look it over!” Caitlin replied, “We’ll have to call him to have him check it out again. Ronnie can also look it over when he gets back later.”

“Where did he go?” Barry asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Caitlin smiled, “He and Dr. Stein went to go get dinner for us in Starling City. It’s from this great restaurant that he took us too when we just got together. He knows I love the food and near the end of the particle accelerator, we took Dr. Wells and Cisco with us, who also fell in love with the food. We’re hoping you’ll love the food.”

Barry smiled back, excited that he was about to share something that Caitlin and Ronnie had only shared with those they counted as friends. “Sounds awesome.”

Harry sighed, “You are kidding me right? You’re going to talk about dinner at a time like right now?” His shoulder’s slumped, “You’re evil best friend popped out of her cell and then popped back in and there’s a chance that the other metas could do it.”

“There’s not a chance, because if they could do it, they would’ve.” Barry shrugged. “I mean they all hate us so, I’d think they’d take whatever chance they could to kill us.”

“He’s got a point.” Caitlin said, sighing as she watched Cisco curled up. She felt bad, she hadn’t wanted Cisco to find out like that. She wanted to break it to her gently, so that when it hurt her – which Caitlin knew it would, it wouldn’t be such a painful hit.

 

* * *

 

 

“Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda.” She whispered to herself as she pressed the microphone button before unpressing it. Harry had left to go sleep or play around what used to be Cisco’s lab and Barry had gone home to Joe’s place and that had left her alone in the Cortex. Barry had offered to take her home, but Caitlin had felt like she had to stay. Ronnie had suggested before he and Dr. Stein had left, that it was because the last time she left Cisco in the lab, she had gone missing but Caitlin resented that. It wasn’t her job to watch out for the slightly younger woman, and the fact that Ronnie had suggested that she felt responsible brought a whiff of cold towards her.

“Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona se queda.” She whispered again, the Spanish words falling from her lips. Cisco had told her that back when they were still working on the particle accelerator and Hartley had pissed the other woman off.

“It’s a saying my mom used to tell me. It means you can’t make a silk purse out of a cow’s ear.” She grinned and looked back at Hartley, glaring daggers. “He can say all the pretty words he wants and speak like he’s actually someone important, but he’s still a little weasel.”

“Harsh.” Caitlin had still giggled and bumped Cisco with her shoulder. “What did he do this time?”

Cisco hadn’t answered her then, had instead just brushed it off and made some joke about how his candy drawer privileges were revoked and Caitlin had let it drop. She later found out that Hartley had said some offensive things towards Cisco’s idea that she had and Cisco had just said some really rude things. Pressing the button again, she hesitated. Her mouth was close to the mouth piece but nothing was being spoken.

She sighed, her fingers had already moved off the button and she slumped in the chair, her eyes watching Cisco. The other woman had only been there for less than one day and already she was messing with things. Covering her face with her hands, Caitlin moved to stand, pressing the button to whisper, “Good night, Cisco.” into the microphone before grabbing her bag from the floor and leaving the Cortex. Harry was staying in the labs for the night, like he did every night since showing up, so she wouldn’t have to worry that much about Cisco walking out.

The Spanish words echoed in her brain as she left the Cortex and walked down the halls. She had tried to put lipstick on a pig and sell it as if it wasn’t a pig, but it was. Trying to dress Harry up to hide the truth wasn’t what she should’ve done, she should’ve told Cisco and not felt so responsible for her feelings. It wasn’t her job to soften any harsh blows, no one had tried to soften the blows she had gotten from all of it. Yeah, tomorrow, she’d be a big girl and just bluntly tell Cisco what had happened.

 

* * *

 

She felt the movement before she heard the clanging. Two hours had past since Caitlin had said good night, two hours of her laying under the sheets and wishing she could disappear. It was hard to focus though as all her thoughts focused on the words that were swirling around her head. For once, all the other voices were quiet and she was left alone to trying to remember everything Dr. Wells had ever said to her.

No matter how far she went back, she couldn’t even find an inch of proof in her memories that he seemed wrong. It made her feel stupid for believing everything.

“Ms. Ramon.” The doppelganger of the man who apparently betrayed her said from the mouth of the pipeline.

She stared at him, her eyes squinting as she stared at him from underneath the blanket. “What do you want, Fake Fake Dr. Wells?” She asked.

He sighed, “I am not the fake of anyone. I am Dr. Harrison Wells, just not from this Earth. I am also not the fake of an already fake person.” He fidgeted with the marker in his hand and she pushed the blanket further back.

“Whatever.” She glared from her spot, “What do you want?

“I want to talk.” He said and she watched as he opened the door to her cell, backing up slightly and making a motion with his hands. He wanted her to follow him but she didn’t trust him well enough to do so. If she knew if Caitlin or Ronnie were still there, she’d have no trouble following, but with just this fake Dr. Wells… well Cisco wasn’t sure.

“I dun wanna.” Cisco muttered into her pillow, “I’m trying to sleep here.”

“No, you are trying to wallow in self pity. I am trying to find my daughter.” He said harshly, turning back to her. She stared into the eyes that had become strangers to her own. “Now, come on. Let’s go.”

She watched as he walked out of the pipeline entrance and waited. A minute passed and she huffed out a breath and threw the blankets back. She’d wallow in self pity later, right now, she had been seduce by the mystery that was Earth-2 Harrison Wells.

The halls of STAR Labs weren’t as empty as they seemed to be; the ghosts of the people lost in the explosion and the ghosts of those that existed only in other worlds seemed to be wandering the pathways. She walked carefully to avoid them all, twisting in her movement as she moved to try to keep up with Harrison. She tried to push them away but the fact that she had been disconnected for the hours that passed when she was in her cell meant that they were back with a vengeance.

He lead her into what used to be her work room and the world quieted. For a second she heard the voice of Hartley Rathaway, but it faded as she made her way further into the room. All her projects were there, sitting where she left them.

“I made sure not to touch anything.” The man from Earth-2 said, pushing a swivel chair with his feet towards her. He sat smugly on the chair that was normally hers – well was hers when she was still good. She slid into the seat and moved towards the nearest metal table. She picked up a screwdriver and circled it in her hands.

“These are all mine.” She muttered, her eyes darkening.

“Yeah, they kept it exactly how you left it.” He said, tapping his marker against the table nearest him. It held some project she barely remembered starting. She looked up at him.

“What do you want from me?” She questioned, her eyes narrowing.

The man smiled, a look so similar to one that had made her say yes to a job offer. “I want to know what you know about Earth-2 and everything Reverb told you about Zoom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weird bit of Spanish is a weird bit of Spanish. I only learned it because my Spanish teacher in like the 8th grade said it and it stuck with me. I'm pretty sure it means something like 'You can dress a monkey up in silk, but it is still a monkey' or y'know a really nicer way of saying you can't polish a turd. If not, I apologize and would love to learn what it really means. 
> 
> Don't forget to kudos and comment!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of background and a few steps forwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter might be the shortest I've written (which is not saying much given that like each chapter ranges between 3000 -4000 words) but it's got a lot of plot meat to it.

Earth-Two, Reverb told her, was a special place. Those with powers weren’t subjugated and stuck in fear like those were in her world; they basically ruled it. She was able to develop her powers much quicker and she was found by a speedster named Zoom – of course, Reverb was not a girl like her but, she could only explain it in first person.

Zoom was a god there basically; the Flash had never been able to defeat him and he had an army of metahumans that served him. Though, Reverb wasn’t happy just being a second in command and he often wanted to rule Central City himself. He had popped to her once, asking her to join him as soon as she got powerful enough that way she could help him take down Zoom. She hadn’t agreed or disagreed.

During the day, he taught her how to build her glasses and how to make it so they would work in any universe she decided to go to. He also spoke of his plans and of Zoom’s plans. He talked about playing jailer to some prisoners of Zoom’s and how he hated the speedster that laid behind the mask. He talked about how with her, they would be able to disrupt his ability to connect to the Speed Force and then he could kill him, take Central City for himself and rule it with Deathstorm and Killer Frost’s help.

He was the main voice in her head, he helped her come up with many of her earlier plans. After a while, he left her to come up with her own and just smirked as she thought about them. There were others, ones with names that had only minor changes, that spoke softly to her. Most of them just weren’t that loud unless they were helping her come up with plans.

Reverb brought her to where he worked out his powers after she had created her eye wear and she was surprised to see how red it was. When she had first started thinking of multiple worlds, she hadn’t thought they’d have two suns. Of course, it was always a possibility, she just hadn’t really put her brains to use when she first had her powers growing inside her. Anyway, he took her to a forest and put her to the test, fighting against her and training her in her skills.

She learned a lot from Reverb. Of course, others trained her, mostly Vibe from Earth-36 and Reverb from Earth-52, but Reverb from Earth-2 was the one that took a major mentor relationship with her. It was probably due to his own desire for power, but it didn’t matter. She grew stronger during those days there and while it was weird since she had never really gone out to the woods until then, it was a good weird. Getting all the attention that she was felt good. They cared about her and wanted to see her grow and become better at controlling her powers.

He gave her a watch with a timer ticking down and that was it. She wasn’t sure what it was counting down to, when he dropped her off back home, he never told her, but she figured it was counting down to his plan.

“And that’s it? He never told you where Zoom was hiding? He never took you there?” Harry asked and Cisco frowned.

“No. We stayed in the woods unless one of the other Ciscos dragged us to their world. He said that he had shields in the woods and Zoom couldn’t sense us working on my powers there.” She replied, crossing her arms in front of her as she stopped fiddling with the tech in front of her. It was apart of her plans for a stronger tank for the fireman suit, which she wanted to figure out where it went.

“Are you sure?” He pushed, leaning forward.

“I told you, Reverb didn’t like Zoom. He wants me to wait until I’m strong enough before asking anything.”

“And what did you mean ‘play jailer’?”

“I don’t know.” Cisco ground out. “Reverb hates talking about Zoom and -”

“You’re useless.” Harry said, dropping a tool on the table creating a loud, vibrating sound. Cisco flinched but he continued speaking. “You don’t know anything. I thought you were supposed to be a genius.”

“I am a genius!” Cisco yelled before she took a deep breath, her shoulders sagging. “I’m sorry about your daughter and I’m sorry that my Earth-2 counterpart is helping the guy who has her, but I don’t know much about your world. I only know what my Earth-2 counterpart would tell me.”

A quiet descended upon the room, Harry’s heaving breathing and Cisco’s fiddling the only sound. She wasn’t sure what she should say, she had always had a hard time with words and it was worse because he had been the only one to ask any questions and the one question she did ask, he had no idea how to answer because he hadn’t been there when Dr. Wells had died. Sighing, Cisco put her screwdriver down.

“I promise you, I will help bring your daughter back to you.” She said softly, “Even if I have to fight myself, I will bring your daughter back to you.”

“You can’t promise that.” Harry said, “You really can’t when you’ve been a villain until yesterday.”

She shook her head, smiling lightly. “Yeah, I can, because I’m turning a leaf and I’m going to be a good guy. Dr. Wells changed my life by giving me a chance to join STAR Labs and though, he apparently turned out to be a liar and a fake, you need someone to step up and that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Trying to be a good girl doesn’t really seem like a Vibrance thing to be doing.” Harry said, grabbing her screwdriver from the table.

“It’s not. It’s a me thing to do though and I would like to be me again.” She grinned, shooting him a soft glare, “Not to bring feelings into the mix.”The Fake Fake Dr. Wells – Harry as everyone from Earth-1 was calling him – glared back before tossing his marker her way. She dodged it and gave him a look. “Did you seriously just toss a marker at me?” She asked, as he scooted his chair to her table.

“What are you working on?” He asked, ignoring her question.

She sighed before shaking her head. “A tank that holds 50% more air for firemen. It’s to go with my fireman suit I was designing before everything.”

“Ah, Allen’s suit.” He said and for a moment, her heart ached before her brain caught up with the words he was saying.

“That’s why it looks so familiar!” She smacked herself in the forehead, “Last time I saw that suit it was gray. Hmm, the red polymer looks good so I mean, not a bad choice.” She muttered to herself before shaking her head again. “I, unknowingly, designed the Flash’s suit. I am so proud of myself.”

“Enough self love, let’s take a look at your tech.” Harry said, interrupting her thoughts and moving the tank away. He picked up a black bag she hadn’t noticed on the floor and dropped it on the table not gentle at all. Unzipping it, he pulled out her glasses and her gauntlets, making a face at each one. “Your counterpart isn’t known for using gauntlets.” He pointed out and she felt a surge of annoyance.

“I know but I use them to localize the blast. More localization, less civilians injured during an attack and more of a hit when attacking. It’s something you can’t get when you just use the palm of your hand.” She defended her choice and grabbed her gauntlets from the table, holding them to her chest. “Cisco-34 helped me come up with the idea.”

“’Cisco-34’?” Harry questioned, lifting an eyebrow.

She nodded, “He’s from Earth-34, obviously and he’s the head of Ramon Industries, a company that did the particle accelerator right and it didn’t blow up in everyone’s face and create metahumans. It’s a pretty cool world – there’s 12 seasons of Firefly and it’s still ongoing. Unfortunately, there’s no Princess Bride or Star Wars.”

“...I don’t see why any of that matters.”

“Well of course you don’t, you don’t care about anything besides finding your daughter, but I mean to people who were actually a fan of that show, it matters.” She shrugged, “Though, no Star Wars and Princess Bride is a bit of an unfair trade. You’d think that taking those amazing classics from the repertoire would have also added more Star Trek or something, but nope.”

“Focus.” Harry told her, smacking the table again. “Explain the science behind your gloves.”

Cisco sighed yet again and started from the top, from meeting Cisco-34 while going through different universes to kidnapping him so he’d help her perfect her ideas and how he came up with the idea of using a gauntlets to help focus her blasts so they’d be stronger. She had agreed and they went to work and with two Ciscos working on it, they were able to finish it in a day.

“I came up with it when I remembered that Reverb said he needed two Ciscos to actually de-power Zoom. I figured that if that was true than if both me and Reverb could make our vibrational blasts stronger by focusing them, then it’d take less power to take him down.”

Harry looked impressed by her thinking, but he wasn’t the one that spoke. “I thought you said you hadn’t agreed or disagreed to help him?”

Cisco turned, a look of surprise on her face. “I didn’t feel you.” She said, accusingly towards Barry, who stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.

He gave her a smile and walked further into the room. “Power dampening bracelets.” He said, lifting up his wrists. “I figured they might have an effect on your powers.”

“You were right.” She said, pushing away from the table and dropping her gauntlets to grab at his wrists and turn them around so she could look at the devices that he wore. “Who designed these? They’re amazing.”

“Dr. Wells.” Barry replied, before frowning. “Well, Fake Dr. Wells. Hartley Rathaway actually made the prototype but it was all Dr. Wells’ plan.”

Cisco hummed but didn’t say anything as she continued to look at them. It took a moment, but she spoke up. “Hartley Rathaway couldn’t design anything this good. He’s a rat, a weasel.” She muttered, “Take them off, I want to study them.”

Barry nodded, smiling at the words she used. Caitlin had used them a few times when describing the glasses wearing scientist back when they first started working with him and he had to agree. Though Hartley had warmed up to working on Team Flash, that didn't mean that he wasn't a bit of a weasel sometimes. He undid them and handed them over, watching as she walked to her table and grab a screwdriver from Harry’s hands. “Anyway,” He said, grabbing a chair and pulling it close to the two scientists, “like I said, I thought you hadn’t agreed to help him.”

Cisco bit her lip, “I didn’t, but I mean, helping him and helping you guys fall in the same bracket so why not.” She shrugged, “Also, I mean, I have to help him. He’s me. I would hate it if a me didn’t help me.”

“But he’s trying to take over the world over there.” Barry argued, “I mean, I doubt he’ll be a better ruler than Zoom, who seems to be evil.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not going to not help him.” She looked up at him, her hands stalling, “He trained me. He helped me. He may be an evil jerk, but I mean, I’m pretty much the same. He’s just a little eviler; y’know more sinister in his plans.”

He shook his head, smiling slightly. He liked her, she was pretty funny and interesting. Unfortunately, Harry didn’t think so. “You’re going to help a person you know is going to enslave at least half the population, keeping everyone who isn't a metahuman under control via threats of death? All because he's you? Are you an idiot?”

Barry watched as her jaw tightened. “You know I’m not, so stop calling me that!” She yelled, dropping the bracelets and looking up at him. “You have no idea about anything! You’re just like the Harrison Wells of here – you think you do nothing wrong and that you know everything but you don’t! Reverb helped me become who I am!”

“A petty villain.” Harry cut in, shooting her a dark look. “That’s what he turned you into.”

Cisco ignored him though and continued on, “He trained me in powers that could very well kill me and almost did! I mean, I was getting nosebleeds and headaches and body aches all the damn time whenever I accessed my powers and then, here’s someone who can cut through the loudness, through the constant screaming of the universe and the pain and you all want me to say no to helping him!”

“Hey,” Barry moved to try and calm her down, “No, it’s just-”

“I know what you want.” She slammed the screwdriver down and pushed her chair back farther enough that it hit the wall, bouncing back slightly. “I’ve been to worlds where they use my powers for what they want and that’s what you want.”

“No.” Barry said, firmly. “That’s not what I want at all.”

“It’s what I want.” Harry muttered and Barry shot him a glare.

“I want to help you,” Barry said, pleadingly. His eyes widened and he gave his best puppy dog -eyes, the ones Iris said no one could say no to. “I know we’re not friends, but I would like to become friends with you. And I want to help you transition into a good guy like you wanted to be. That’s it.”

Cisco paused, huffing out her breaths as she stared at him. It was obvious that she wasn’t sure if she could trust him, but it was also obvious that she was having a bit of trouble towards his eyes. Her hands clenched and then unclenched as she sat back down. She opened her mouth to speak but she apparently decided not to because she turned and decided to focus on her project.

Barry lifted an eyebrow towards Harry, nodding his head towards the hallway. “I’ve got to talk to Harry, Cisco.” He said, getting up from his spot, “We’ll be in the Cortex if you need us.”

The woman frowned, “You’re going to trust me down here?” She asked.

“It’s your lab, last time I checked.” Barry shrugged, giving her a smile. “I can’t keep you out of your lab.”

She looked up and gave him a smile. “Okay, I’ll be down here then.”

 

* * *

 

Barry walked Harry to the Cortex, trying to figure out his words as they walked in silence. He wasn’t much for scolding people, he normally was on the other side. “You are glad that Caitlin opted to call me to check out why the sensors were going crazy instead of coming down here herself because she would be reaming you out.”

“And you’re not going to?” Harry asked, crossing his arms.

“No, because I think you know it was a stupid thing for you to do.” He retorted, “You know she’s supposed to stay in the cell and you know Caitlin told you not to go near her. The only reason she’s talking to you is because -”

“I share her dead mentor’s face.” Harry cut in.

“Exactly. You know she’s vulnerable right now and you are manipulating her emotions for your own means.” Barry frowned, stopping as they came to the Cortex. He turned to face Harry, “You saw how she reacted when she thought that we were going to be like those people in other worlds that use her; I’d hate for her to have to get that angry again because it turns out to be true that we’re just using her.” He dropped into a seat, crossing his legs in front of him. He wasn’t sure what else to say, but he felt like he should continue scolding the older dimension traveler. Shaking his head he decided to change the conversation. “So did you find out what you wanted?”

The man shook his head, “Everything you heard was everything we talked about. She wasn’t big on sharing, not that there was much.” He sighed as he wiped a hand through his hair, “He mentioned playing jailer but he never told her where. He took her to my world but kept her in the woods to train. He has a plan to take down Zoom, but he needs her. None of what she told me makes sense with what I know.”

“Maybe you don’t know everything.” Barry suggested, shrugging.

Harry hummed but said nothing, leaving Barry to resign himself to sleeping at the lab. He wanted to keep Cisco feeling safe and secure and with Harry badgering her, he doubted she did. Leaning back in the chair, Barry felt around for the candy drawer, opening it without looking and grabbing the first few pieces of small candy he felt in there. He handed Harry two pieces of tootsie rolls and opened his Airheads, popping them in his mouth and sucking on them.

Harry took the candies and left to go to the mechanical side office and play around in there, probably hoping to pretend that Barry didn’t exist as he worked out the problems that surrounded him. Barry understood why the older man was so grumpy, he had seen sights of it before while working his day job, but he wished that Harry would trust them well enough to believe that they could help. He had made the promise to bring Jessie back and Barry never broke his promises – heck, even Cisco had promised to help bring the girl back – which meant that there was double a chance to bring her back. Harry just had to trust them.

Barry looked from the cameras that showed Cisco working with the bracelets to Harry in the glass office fiddling with something. He wished he had taken Joe up on his offer to drive him to STAR Labs when Caitlin had first told him that the sensors were going crazy. Joe could have helped him deal with Cisco and Harry and everything. But no, he told Joe to stay with Iris.

Sighing, Barry hit the intercom system and leaned forward, “Hey Cisco, I’m going to be napping on the second floor. If you need me, find me okay?”

She gave the camera a thumbs up before going back to her tinkering. Barry smiled before getting up from his spot and repeating the same to Harry, who ignored him as he walked out. The empty halls of STAR Labs once freaked him out, he had never understood how Caitlin and Dr. Wells could walk through the halls and not feel like they were being haunted by dying dreams, but according to Caitlin, she never felt that. The most she felt was being haunted by the fact that there wasn’t more she could do.

He put his hand on the elevator’s hand scanner and waited, he could’ve ran up there but that meant bypassing Cisco and he wanted to leave her in peace. The ride up also gave him some time to think about things. He had to come up with a plan to get Cisco to not help her evil self rule Earth-2 and to find Jessie and rescue her, defeat Zoom and save Earth-2 so that Harry could go home.

All in a days work.

The second office on the right side of the hall held the best futon to sleep on, in Barry’s honest opinion. The futon was the most comfortable and it was, unlike all the other offices, empty and without papers strewn everywhere. According to Caitlin, the day after the particle accelerator exploded, workers grabbed everything that wasn’t bolted down and walked out with all their research. Thankfully, Dr. Wells had expected something like that in the case of the experiment not working and everything that everyone worked on was patented by STAR Labs.

Sighing as he leaned back on the futon couch, Barry closed his eyes and started to daydream, letting sleep overtake him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and Comment! Hope this was enjoyable!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tests. Funny things. A heartfelt moment. Hartley Rathaway makes an appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dubious science galore. Seriously, like I failed 9th grade science and that was like 9 years ago (I also sucked at math) but I did all the research I could to make the science in this make sense but like if something seems off, just suspend your disbelief because COMICS!! Also, I love comments even when AO3 and my email team up to not tell me I have any, so leave some and have fun reading!

Barry awoke to a loud crash, the sound jolting him up and out of the room, running down the eastern steps and right into the Cortex. Caitlin stood there, face screwed up into her disapproving look as Joe had his arms crossed in front of him. Cisco stood in the glass office, sweeping her hand back and forth as she cleared the air of smoke. She was grinning from ear to ear as she did so and she dropped the fire extinguisher on the swivel chair and left the room, coughing slightly.

“So, the tank is not up to code – it explodes under pressure.” She said, pushing her black hair out of her face and grabbing the scrunchy off of Caitlin’s wrist and pulling it up into a bun. “Also, who decided Flash over there got my suit? I made it and I think I should decide who it goes to.”

“You weren’t here.” Caitlin said, walking behind her and giving the other woman a glare, “And Hartley finished it after breaking up with Chip.”

“Aw, I liked Chip.” Cisco said, sliding into the chair that Barry stood in front of. “And anyway, how’s it going? Because that thing was my work of art after breaking up with Melinda -”

“And breaking up with Larry.” Caitlin gave them a side eye as she booted up her own computer, “Cisco is a fan of our fire department; she dated like four firefighters before realizing that maybe dating them wasn’t a good idea.”

“Hey, Melinda and Larry were firefighters, Skye and Kevin were just interns or trainees.” Cisco said, pointing a cup at the red haired woman. “Anyway, I’m just bad at dating. I swear, I wish I could date myself.”

“Why can’t you?” Barry asked, “I mean you can pop to alternate worlds, just find one and-”

“Because, in at least 17 worlds I’ve visited, I’m successful at dating and the other 32, I wouldn’t be caught dead dating myself.”

Caitlin grinned before apparently coming to her own senses and frowned, “How did you get out of your cell?”

“Harry let me out.” She said, waving towards the hall where Harry had apparently walked off hours ago to go sleep. “He wanted to talk, didn’t like our talk. Barry was here so don’t worry I didn’t try to do anything.”

The look Caitlin gave Harry could have killed him if she wanted, the way her normally honey colored eyes glossed over with frost, the blue color was bright against the skylights. “You ignored us telling you to leave her alone?” She asked, her voice turning cold. “What would make you be that stupid?”

Cisco whistled and turned back towards the glass lab, “We -” She motioned to Barry, Joe and herself, “are going to go stand there, pretending that we can’t hear you.” She grabbed Barry’s upper arm and dragged him off to the glass partition, Joe following along dutifully. She stopped, giving Caitlin a thumbs up before pressing the button on the side to close the door. “Man, she is totally pissed off. I haven’t seen her this pissed since Ronnie got injured that one time and lied about it.”

Barry gave a shrug and sat down, circling in the chair. He gave her a look and smiled, “What was it like working here when it was filled with people?” He asked, hoping to get her talking about the past she and Caitlin seemingly ignored. For Caitlin, Barry could understand. She was scared of opening up herself and getting hurt again, but for Cisco, Barry didn’t know her well enough.

Cisco gave him a look before sighing, jumping up on the table. “It was interesting,” She replied, crossing her legs. “When I applied, I expected I’d be an intern, but Dr. Wells, he… he said I was brilliant. He said that my warmth, the way I cracked jokes and was just excited overall meant that I had a bright and full future here at STAR Labs. I was completely over the top happy. I couldn’t believe that the Harrison Wells thought that I was brilliant.”

She paused, listening as Caitlin reamed Harry out, looking down at her hands that tightened around a screwdriver she didn’t know she had picked up. “I didn’t get along well with my project manager, Hartley Rathaway, he was a bit of a jerk and a dick and a whole slew of words that are rude. He used to say that Dr. Wells only hired me for eye candy and moral so I sorta hated him. But, beside him, I gained a lot of friends. I was respected amongst my peers and I was able share my ideas. It was amazing.”

“Yeah, Hartley seemed like a dick last time we talked.” Barry answered, giving Joe a look, “He called me and Joe ‘basic’.”

“That’s Hartley for you.” Cisco laughed bitterly. “The only person I ever heard him not call basic was Dr. Wells. Honestly, he was just a smug little --” She made a choking motion with her hands and smiled.

Caitlin’s scolding filled the air and Barry felt the temperature drop. “I really hope she doesn’t freeze him.” He said, looking to Joe who raised his arms in the air.

“I am not going out there.”

“But she likes you the best.” Barry pouted, giving the man who raised him his sad look. Cisco laughed light as Joe gave Barry a lifted eyebrow.

“I’m not going out there until Caitlin calms down.” Joe said, listening as the normally mild manner doctor continue explaining to the dimension traveler what exactly was wrong with him. He was surprised that the man actually stayed put as long as he did, normally whenever Caitlin or Barry scolded him for doing something stupid and risking lives, he walked off, ignoring them.

“Normally,” Cisco began, “I’d offer myself. I was known to calm her down, but she’s not exactly happy with me so if she freezes him, we can just use a hair dryer. Or, hey! I made some really cool weapons back when I worked here. It was like the first month of metahumans and so I designed a heat gun and a cold gun prototype. I never knew if they actually worked, but heck, if they don’t then I can make them work.”

“You designed them?” Barry said, jaw dropping. His face screwed up a bit, “Captain Cold and Heat Wave got them.”

“Those two?” Cisco groaned, her thoughts going back to the crimewave that she had nothing to do with. “Aw, that kinda sucks. I like their names though, who came up with them?”

“Caitlin.”

 

* * *

 

Five minutes earlier, Caitlin Snow waited until the others had left the room before turning towards Harry, her eyes cold. “What were you thinking?” She asked, “You are not her friend, you do not get to question Cisco about something that we all deserve to know about.”

“I was hoping to get some information from her that you wouldn’t allow me to ask.” Harry said and that spurned her forward.

“You went ahead and asked her questions you knew we wouldn’t want you to ask? Are you serious right now?” She shed her mild mannered behavior and let a bit of Killer Frost show. “You disobeyed our exact wishes and questioned her because you wanted information that could’ve waited?”

“My daughter has waited long enough.”

Caitlin deflated a bit, but she stood her ground. “I know that. I get that, Harry, but you do not get to talk to Cisco without others present.” She said firmly.

“What are you scared I’m going to reveal, Snow?” He asked, getting up from his spot. “Think I’m going to reveal your stupid desire to name the villains you come up against with stupid names? Think I’m going to reveal your friendship with Allen and the Wests? What are you so scared will happen if I talk to Ramon alone?”

“I’m not scared of anything. I’m worried that while you’re being stupid and letting her out, she’s going to enact her plan.” Caitlin replied.

He laughed, “Ah yes, the evil plan she is hiding from you.” He shook his head, “You really think only two days in her ‘reformation’ she’s going to shed it and enact an evil plot? No, she’s going to wait until everyone’s comfortable and then enact it and I want to get all the information I can beforehand.”

“What makes you think she’s telling the truth?” Caitlin asked, her voice harsh. “She’s been on the bad guys side for the past two years. Anything she told you could be a lie!”

“Anything she tells me would be better than sitting around waiting for you all to act against Zoom!”

“We are trying but we can’t just go in there guns blazing and not thinking!” She argued, “I mean, we can’t just risk our lives without information.”

“You guys haven’t even made a move against him! We are sitting ducks and every second we sit on our asses, is a second my daughter is stuck with him longer!” Harry yelled, hitting the table. The noise caused Caitlin to flinch and the air to drop in temperature.

“And every second you go behind our backs is a second that you waste!” Caitlin yelled, her emotions getting the best of her. Frost crept up walls and the skylights, frosting over in a matter of milliseconds. She didn’t even care as she let it surge forward, drops of snow hitting the ground. “We have other problems besides Zoom and we will deal with everything accordingly. You cannot just assume that your problems come first! We are a team and as such our problems are your problems so either realize that now or you are going to find yourself in deep crap!”

A deep mist flew out of her hands as she continued, her control on her powers looser than it had ever been. Even in the beginning she exhibited more control. “So no more of this bull crap, Wells! You do not talk to Cisco without either me or Barry present. You do not step out of line or I will freeze you until we need you, do you got that?” The room stayed quiet as Harry contemplated her words and Caitlin worked on reigning in her powers.

“This isn’t going to work.” Harry mumbled, the words causing another surge of the cold.

“It’s going to have to if you want our help.” She hissed, smacking her hands down on the desk and freezing it. The heat from the table felt good to her cold body, but it didn’t last, it never had since she got her powers. “We are your best chances, Harry. No, actually, we are you only chances.” She looked him in the eyes, “Trust us to help you, even if you don’t like us.”

Harry looked at her and from his glasses she could see her own reflection; the hair turning lighter, the eyes glowing blue. She had never gone Killer Frost but she could almost see herself as the woman. Did Harry see her as the villain that had attacked him several times on his earth? Did he see her as the pawn of Zoom like her Earth-2 counterpart was? Or did he only see her as Dr. Snow, the naive and slightly optimistic woman that occupied Earth-1 and wasn’t on his level of brilliance or whatever? For a second, she wished she could read him like she could read Barry or Joe or Iris, she wished she could know what went on in his mind, just to find out what he saw them as, but she couldn’t and so she was forced to go by his behavior which only told her that he saw them as pawns to solve his own problems.

And after it turned out that their Dr. Wells was actually an evil sociopath from the future, she wasn’t going to be anyone’s pawn anymore.

“Do you trust us?” Caitlin asked, the words coming out with a cold breath of air.

“I will.” Harry said after several quiet moments.

She nodded, calling the cold back to her when the door to the lab opened up a smidge and Barry peeked his head out. “Everything okay out here?” He asked in a slightly forced happy tone.

“It’s fine. Me and Harry was having a chat.” Caitlin gave a final nod to Harry, the frost melting back into her body as she did so and the cold returning back to the pit in her stomach. She focused really hard on the bracelets on her wrists, hoping she didn’t freeze them. Thankfully, warmth started to seep from them slowly and she felt her temperature rise a bit. “Tell Cisco that we’re bringing Hartley in for her tests today.”

“Aw, hell no!” Cisco peeked out from underneath Barry and frowned, “I don’t want dick face anywhere near me with my powers, I might lose it and hurt him.”

“You can just hold in the desire to kill him.” Caitlin said, sitting back down. “Also, come change from your outfit.”

“...Fine.” Cisco pouted and moved out of the office, grabbing the clothing from Caitlin’s desk and moving off to go change.

Barry waited until the woman was gone before he left the office, Joe trailing behind him. “So,” He muttered, moving to stand next to Caitlin, “Everything okay?”

She bit her lip but nodded nonetheless, “Yeah, it’s fine now.” She looked towards Harry and continued, “We’re finally agreeing.”

“Good, that’s good.” He replied, sitting down on the edge of the table. Joe stood nearby, giving him a thumbs up. “Do you want to talk about anything?”

She laughed goodnaturedly and shook her head. “No, thank you though Barry. I promise you, everything is all fine now.”

“Okay, okay, good.” Barry crossed his arms over his chest and threw a look at Joe, obviously hoping the older man would have something to say. Joe shook his head though and sat down in one of the chairs, crossing his own arms. “So, when is Hartley showing up?”

“Should be here in about ten minutes.” Caitlin answered, checking the watch on her left wrist. “Which means that we have only seven minutes to figure out a way to keep Cisco from killing him or something like that.”

“She wouldn’t actually kill him, would she?” Joe asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

She shrugged, “Well, her relationship with Hartley has always been horrible – not that I blame her – and I know last time she saw him, back before she walked out but he did, she said that she would kill him next time she saw him.”

“I’m not going to kill him.” Cisco muttered walking back in, she pulled at the sweatshirt and frowned, “I might maim him if he makes another comment about my intelligence.”

“I’ll try to keep him from doing so.” Caitlin promised, picking up a chart and moving towards the room where the treadmill sat. “Run on this thing for a little okay?”

Cisco nodded and climbed on, running with it when it started up. Caitlin slid into her normal seat, Barry sitting in the seat that Hartley normally took and stared. “It is so weird not to be the person on the other end of the glass.”

Caitlin gave him a sympathetic look as she leaned forward, following the data that was being delivered to the screen. Barry followed it himself, noting just how baseline normal it was. Caitlin had pulled up what had to be Cisco’s last results from a previous physical and she was matching it to what data was being sent to the computer from all the electrodes that she had watched Cisco attach to herself. Half of it, he couldn’t make sense of, but the other half was everything that Caitlin had showed him whenever she did his physicals.

“You doing okay?” Caitlin asked, leaning into the microphone.

Cisco nodded, “Yeah, fine. I’ve ran longer than this while trying to keep from the cops and the Flash.” She joked, but she sounded slightly winded. Like the five minutes she had been running was tiring her out. “Okay, that’s a lie. I pop everywhere. Caitlin, this is boring.” She admitted after a moment longer.

“You’re running faster than you used to be able to, but for a shorter period of time. It’s been less than ten minutes and you’re tired already.” Caitlin hummed, “Then again, you’re moving at a speed just slightly above average. I mean that’s good.”

“Yay?”

“It’s surprising, given your past failures.” Hartley Rathaway’s voice said from the doorway. “Your previous speed was below average so this is a proper upgrade.”

“I’m not a machine, Rathaway.” Cisco growled from the treadmill.

“No, because if you were, you’d be much better.” He replied, his voice barely changing the inflection.

“I’m not going to maim him. I’m not going to maim him.” Cisco muttered, glaring at the wall and clenching her fist.

“Hartley.” Caitlin warned, but he waved her off.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on provoking the beast.” He lifted an eyebrow, a smirk on his face.

The treadmill stopped and Cisco turned to face the glass, “Look here, Hartley, call me a beast again and I’m going to pop you to a post-apocalyptic world.” She huffed, “And I’m done. Like I said, I pop everywhere, I haven’t done actual physical education since school and Caitlin, you know I failed that.”

“Cisco, just run on the treadmill for a few minutes more. I need more data.” Caitlin said, frowning. She turned off the microphone and sighed, watching as Cisco did as asked. “It looks like that while she can run faster than before, it’s for a less amount of time. Then again, Cisco didn’t do that well on physicals before. I should just have her run laps in the halls, she always did best when she had a deadline.”

“If you believe that.” Hartley murmured from next to her, looking over the data. “Despite how tired she is, her heartbeat isn’t rising as quickly.”

Caitlin hummed and nodded. She leaned forward again and pressed the microphone on, “Hey, how does your heart feel? We’re getting wonky readings.”

“My heart feels fine.” Cisco replied, huffing.

“Then what are you thinking about?” Harry asked, leaning over both Caitlin and Hartley. “You’re focusing a lot more than you were when you started, so, what are you thinking about?”

Cisco frowned as she thought about that, “I… I’m thinking about not being tired.” She paused, “Reverb said that if I think I’m not tired, then I won’t be tired anymore, but I mean I’m still plenty tired.”

Harry hummed himself and nodded, “It’s more about the amount of pressure being put on your heart and lungs. You’re probably pushing it somewhere else which allows you to run for a longer periods of time even if your legs and your body feel tired.” He paused before asking, “Have you ever tried running even after being tired?”

“No.” Cisco replied, “I have the ability to create portals that can take me home. I am not the Flash, I do not have to run everywhere to get places. Why would I do that?”

“She’s got a point,” Barry said, smiling.

“Can I stop now?” Cisco asked, her voice close to entering the whining territory. Caitlin sighed goodnaturedly and nodded, pressing the microphone once she remembered that Cisco wouldn’t be able to see her.

“Yeah, jump down. I want to take blood.” She said.

Cisco froze and frowned, “Um, not that I’m so not happy about not being forced to run, but can I not get poked?” Her words sound exactly as they did when Caitlin had to draw her blood after the particle accelerator and the time Caitlin had watched the actual STAR Labs physician draw blood during Cisco’s second year of working there. “Blood belongs in the body, Caitlin.”

 

* * *

 

Several hours after the blood drawing incident, Cisco was safely ensconced in her workshop and Caitlin was spending the time going over the data they collected. Ronnie had come by shortly before he left, explaining that he couldn’t find any reasons for the cell not to be working and Hartley had theorized that it was because creating a breech wasn’t really a power – it was an act. He explained it as wanting to cut a piece of paper in two; with a pair of scissors it’s easy, just cut. But without scissors, it’s a little harder as you have to tear the paper and it’s not always clean, but it’s still in two pieces. That was creating a breech, wanting to cut a hole in the universe and doing it.

She had zoned out after he answered Harry’s question of if they could make the cells breech proof or not and Hartley had shrugged, saying, “Possibly, but we need someone who understands breeches. I hate saying this, but we’re going to need Ramon,”. She hadn’t wanted to listen to Hartley and Harry go back and forth on ideas and Barry had talked about going back to work since he wasn’t needed.

Which left her alone in her office. Well, not really hers, but the one she was using. Hers was on the fifteenth floor and had a large bed instead of a desk and at least half her closet. She had moved her clothing there first, back when they were doing the particle accelerator and she was sleeping there more and more. The bed had shown up right after the Singularity and she couldn’t imagine sleeping back at home after everything that had happened. Despite the fact that she wasn’t working there, she was still pretending that it was her home.

Then again, it really was her home. She could admit that now. Her and Ronnie’s apartment hadn’t felt like home after the particle accelerator blew up, even when it was filled with her and Ronnie. It always felt strange staying there, the ghosts of everything that had happened running through it. It was why she dressed her office up as if it was a hotel room.

“Anything strange?” A voice asked, pulling Caitlin from her thoughts.

She looked up and saw Cisco standing awkwardly in the doorway, her hands in her pocket, the metahuman bracelets adorning her wrists. She gave a quick smile, something reassuring as it was no doubt that Cisco had left her workshop due to Harry’s and Hartley’s arguing. “You have the metahuman gene that we’ve isolated and several odd variations of viruses dormant in your body, but other than that, no.” Cisco’s face fell though and Caitlin pushed out a chair for her to sit down on. “Why, were you expecting it to be weird?”

“No, but I was hoping maybe you could see if I had a gene that predisposed me to being susceptible to evil and manipulation.” She looked up and frowned, “Not that I’m not willing to take responsibility to my actions – I am. I admit that I’m at fault but I mean, apparently first Doctor – er, Fake Dr. Wells and then my alternate universe doppelganger who according to Barry and Harry just wants to use me and will probably try to kill me and I mean, you’d think a girl would learn when they’re being manipulated but I’m like part of some stupid sci-fi show where I only have brains when the writers want and that’s just dumb, right?”

“I don’t think you do have that, Cisco.” Caitlin said, her heart going out to the other woman. “I think it’s more the fact that you are so trusting and kind that bad people see that and they know how to use that.”

“I was a bad guy myself, Caitlin. I mean, you still think I am and I was still manipulated.” Cisco sighed, shaking her head “Can I just go back to my cell?” She asked, interrupting Caitlin’s next words.

“Yeah, of course you can.” She replied and then watched as Cisco dodged by Harry and Hartley on the way out of the Cortex, a look on her face.

She didn’t feel bad for not trusting Cisco, she’d be stupid if she did, but she did feel bad for Cisco. Ronnie had explained everything, from Dr. Wells to Caitlin’s own powers – not how she got them of course, that was her story to tell, but the basis of what they were. Cisco had lost everything and to learn that everything that she was, had seemingly been planned out by a crazed time traveler with a thing against Barry, had to have hurt. She knew it hurt herself when she found out that Fake Dr. Wells had only hired her because she could help his dream come true much quicker.

“You okay?” Hartley asked as he walked into the room.

Caitlin gave him a side eye. “No,” She replied truthfully, “It’s so hard. I know logically I can’t trust her, but she’s hurting and she’s my friend. She was my friend. She was my closest friend.”

He gave her a look and shrugged, “Don’t trust her then.” He said, “Just be her friend. You can be a friend without trusting someone. Look at us.”

“Hartley…” Caitlin said, but he waved her off.

“Look, Caitlin, I tried to kill Dr. Wells back when we all thought he was trustworthy, but you said that you were giving me a second chance after I betrayed you guys because I had done good while being apart of Team Flash. So do the same for her. Give her a second chance.”

Caitlin smiled, “That was hard wasn’t it?” She asked after a moment.

“So hard. Like seriously so.” Hartley sagged into the chair Cisco had vacated. “You know I don’t like her, never will.”

“Cisco’s great though.” Caitlin teased, “She’s fun and she’s young and she’s hip.”

“And she’s got an oral fixation for some reason and a parental complex that lead to her being manipulated and she’s got this weird thing where she’s always quoting pop culture and it’s like she’s an audience surrogate.”

“Hartley, she’s always been sweet.”

“She put glue on my tools her second week here and then smiled while I yelled at her.” He complained, before adding, jokingly but still seriously. “So I don’t blame you for not trusting her, but just don’t be so hard on yourself.”

Caitlin gave him another smile and then pushed him away, “Go play with Harry – he likes throwing things and I don’t want him to go find Cisco and bug her.” She said, changing the conversation. “And anyway, I’ve got to figure out this data.”

Hartley gave her a thankful look as he wandered out of the room, leaving her to her thoughts. He was right, not that she would say that. She didn’t have to trust Cisco to be friends with her and Caitlin had given Hartley a second chance after he had worked closely with them and then betrayed them all for the reasons he did. Nodding to herself, Caitlin began looking over the words on the tablet. She’d figure out how to balance her mistrust and her desire to be friends with Cisco at some point, she’d just have to work on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also: I'm using comic lore to a point so this is like a cute mishmash mix of comics and the tv show(s) and so just go along with me???? 
> 
> Find me on tumblr as baelfirecassidy.tumblr.com


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yoga, a fight and tiny bit of existentialist angst???? Also, Iris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not good at fight scene so please forgive me for it. Also, this chapter marks us following the plot of season 2. Of course, I'm not going to follow all of it, but I do got some things plotted out.

“Oh my -!” Caitlin covered her eyes and moved back, “What are you two doing?” She asked as she moved passed Barry and Cisco, the former trying to do the same yoga pose that the latter was put into.

“Barry doesn’t do yoga.” Cisco said, her voice unnaturally calm as she broke off from the headstand that she was in. She rolled to the floor, moving onto her knees as she did so and turned to face her. “I thought that it was a shame.”

Caitlin laughed lightly. In the two weeks that Cisco had returned, she had been smiling and laughing a lot more and it was nice. “Since when did you do yoga?” She asked, her purse safely ensconced in under the desk and her lab coat shrugged onto her shoulders. “And where is Hartley and Harry?”

“Earth-22 me likes yoga,” She replied, “I’m a yoga instructor instead of working at STAR. And who knows where those two went. They yelled at me for not knowing something or other and then walked off buddy buddy.”

“She didn’t want to answer any more questions on Reverb and Earth-2 and of course, you know how sensitive Harry is on that.” Barry said as he unpretzeled himself. How he got pretzeled when trying to do a headstand was beyond Caitlin’s ability to think, but she didn’t want to actually question it out loud. No doubt there’d be some ridiculous story associated with it. Cisco threw him a look before pinching him.

“I was going to tell her that later.” She muttered, “I don’t want Caitlin to go all Elsa on those idiots.”

“Sorry, sorry.”

“I thought we were bros. You broke the bro code. I can’t be friends with a bro code breaker.” Cisco joked, glaring as she stood up from her yoga mat. She grabbed a STAR Labs water bottle from off the chair next to them and threw the second one to Barry who was still sitting. “Honestly, Caitlin, who knew the Flash was a bro code breaker.”

Caitlin shrugged, “Iris might have known.” She said, “We’ll have to yell at her for not telling us earlier. Our city’s most trusted hero is-”

“Dead.” A harsh and deep voice said as Caitlin moved to sit. Barry jolted upwards, changed into his suit and stood in front of both of them. Caitlin moved up, pushing herself close to Cisco and moving the other woman to stand behind her. Cisco reached a hand up and laid it on her skin, only letting go when Caitlin shook her head. She was sure that Killer Frost was going to be needed and she didn’t want to deal with Cisco getting frostbite.

“What the-”

“Zoom.” Caitlin said, her voice wavering.

She wasn’t sure if Cisco had ever seen the inhuman-like man, but he was a sight to behold and it scared her. Her own powers went into whack every time he showed up; she could feel them bypassing her own meta-cuffs and frost tickled her fingers; an icy mist surrounded poured from her hands and she readied herself to attack. She had been training with Barry every now and then, often only when Ronnie was there to help keep her warm afterwards, and she had slight control over the cold that seeped into her veins. Killer Frost entered her mind, the cold voice of the ice calling to her. It took all the control she had to not let the other part of her take over.

“What are you doing here?” Caitlin snarled.

“I have come to kill the Flash since it seems all my minions can’t.” The guttural voice said, one glowing blue lightening claw rising up.

Cisco gasped from behind her. “Caitlin, what-”

“Not right now.”

“Is this a new hero for Team Flash?” He sounded absolutely giddy at the thought of it, probably because he was planning on killing them all and killing another would bring him some sick enjoyment.

“She’s-”

“I am.” Cisco said, interrupting Caitlin and pulling her shoulders back.

“You idiot.” Caitlin muttered, but Cisco flashed her a bright smile and Caitlin couldn’t help herself, she smiled back. They were all going to die – most likely given that they still hadn’t figured out how to stop Zoom himself – but if she was going to die, it would be nice to die next to Cisco. Back when the particle accelerator had started to malfunction that was her main thought: dying next to those she called friends. That’s why she had run down to the particle accelerator after a minute, following Cisco and Ronnie. She hadn’t wanted them to die down there without her.

Of course, they didn’t die. Well, Ronnie had but he wasn’t completely dead and Cisco didn’t die at all and she had been left trying to carry everything.

“It will be a delight to kill you all.” Zoom was saying but Caitlin spotted Harry inching forward in her office. She was sure if she looked to the left, she’d see Hartley decked out in his Pied Piper gear doing the same.

“I am not prepared to die.” Cisco hissed under her breathe.

“You were a villain Cisco, could you stop acting like you’re scared.” Caitlin threw back, certain strands of her hair turning white as the room dropped in temperature and not just because she got angry. Zoom and Barry were staring at each other, sizing each other up and waiting. It wasn’t the first time Zoom and Barry had gone toe to toe, but that had been cut shy by the arrival of her doppelganger, calling him back. Apparently, their big plan wasn’t being enacted right.

“I am scared. I’m not used to feeling -”

A sharp scream filled the air and Barry and Zoom rushed towards each other. Caitlin held back on doing anything more than making the floor icy. When they were moving so fast, it was all she could do to slow them down in hopes of helping Barry. She jumped back as a desk flew forward, pushing both her and Cisco closer to where Barry’s suit was normally held.

She kept trying to separate them, so that Hartley or Harry could shoot the tranquilizer at Zoom, but it was hard. They were going at a speed that left them disappearing from the room every now and then. Her eyes ping ponged as she tried to follow, the only sight she could catch clearly though was Barry getting his butt beat.

“Brace yourself.” Cisco said from behind her and Caitlin only had a second to turn before she felt the world start vibrating. Cisco’s hand was held against the wall of the building, the speedsters caught under the skylight turned towards them, stopping in their fight and Caitlin threw an ice dagger towards Zoom who stopped it before it could ever meet him.

“Caitlin please do something about him.”

“I’m trying,” She whimpered. It was a good plan of Cisco’s, keep the floor unsteady everywhere but around them, only problem was it seemed like it only affected Zoom slightly. The creature jolted towards them and Caitlin felt her blood freeze before she was blasted away. She slid across the room and watched as Zoom zoomed close to Cisco.

Her hand reached out and she blasted him with a stream of cool air right as he backed Cisco into a corner, her hand no longer shaking the entire building. Barry jolted forward now that the world was calm and he grabbed Zoom, taking the moment of surprise to try and get an upper hand. It lasted for maybe a second before they were gone from the Labs again and Caitlin jumped into action. She moved towards the nearest screen and started to look for Barry.

Cisco moved forward, Hartley and Harry right behind her. “We have to find him. He’s a scary bastard.” She said, her hands flying over the keyboard.

They found him, but not for long. The process kept repeating itself; one moment Zoom and Barry would be in CCPD and the next, they’d be near the beach area. It kept changing, unlike Barry’s vitals which was dropping ever so slowly. Caitlin worried her lip as she tried to follow the little dot that was Barry’s suit alerting them of where the speedster was, it moved faster than it ever had before and she knew that was because Zoom was dragging Barry along with him.

“He’s going to die!” She yelled, the icy mist coming back. She fidgeted with her hands as Cisco moved from the seat and went to another monitor.

The television jumped to life and on the screen they saw Barry, slumped over and held lifelessly in Zoom’s hands. The metahuman was talking but Caitlin couldn’t hear anything he was saying, all she could see was Barry, lifeless. He had been the only person she had after thinking she lost Ronnie and losing Cisco, which meant that he couldn’t be-

No.

He couldn’t be-

Barry Allen would be fine, she tried to think.

“He’ll be fine.” She felt herself say as she watched as Zoom disappeared with Barry from the screen. “He’s going to be fine.”

They both appeared in the middle of the Cortex and it was only the biggest relief of her life to see Barry’s chest falling and rising. He was alive. He was alive. She had to keep reminding herself that as Zoom monologued.

“I made a mistake.” Harry said.

“Yes, a costly one.” Zoom replied, pulling Barry up and stabbing him with a vibrating finger. Barry groaned and Caitlin gasped again, trying to force it down. Killer Frost was dormant, surprisingly, and instead of the familiar cold she was used to, she was left with a bitter cold.

“Good bye Flash. You too weren’t fast enough.” The creature said, his hand primed to stab Barry in the chest when a blue blast smacked him in the chest.

Caitlin could barely see but she saw Cisco standing at the side, her hand raised and stretched out. It was obvious that she had just hit him with one of the blasts that she had often attacked Barry with. Zoom hit the farthest wall and for a moment, Caitlin was hoping that it was going to be over, but that was too optimistic and Zoom quickly rose up, speeding out of the room as she moved forward to check on her friend. Cisco dropped her hand, a look of surprise on her face before she went to help as Hartley prepared the medical bay.

 

* * *

 

It took her two hours to stabilize Barry and by then, Joe had taken Cisco and popped over to wherever Henry was and brought the man to his son’s bedside. It felt good to have an actual doctor helping her with Barry, and while Hartley had been good help before Mr. Allen showed up, it was just best to have someone who knew what to do.

Stripping her gloves off her hands, Caitlin sighed as she left the doctor with his son, Joe and Iris right with him. She made a beeline towards Cisco who sat staring at the wall, “Are you okay?” She asked, looking the other woman over. While she didn’t think Cisco got hurt in the fight, she still wanted to make sure.

“Yeah, no, fine.” Cisco said, her voice soft. “Is that-?”

Caitlin lifted an eyebrow, “What is it?” She asked, pulling a chair close and sitting down. She scooted close so she could lean forward, her hair amber hair falling over her shoulders, blocking her lips from the rest of the people.

Cisco shook her head, but talked nonetheless. “I’ve never felt threatened before.” She began, her voice low, “The scariest person I’ve ever faced was Barry and his speed frequency was easy to vibrate. But that – that creature, hes different from anything I’ve faced.”

“He’s different than anything anyone’s faced, Cisco, but we’re going to beat him.” Caitlin reassured, smiling as she did so.

Cisco shook her head again, “Caitlin, I’ve done crime on several other earths than this one, I’ve managed to figure out the difference in the vibrations from each of them, including Earth-2.” She paused, trying to find the words, “His frequency is resonating at a different level than anything I’ve felt before. He’s not right. His vibrations are against the laws of the universe.”

“I don’t understand.” Caitlin replied, ignoring the fact that Harry had moved over towards them. Cisco didn’t answer her right away, instead opting to stare at where Henry and Joe and Iris was. Caitlin knew that they were all huddled around Barry’s bedside and so she stared at her hands, waiting for Cisco’s reply.

“Our world resonates at a frequency that is authentic for our world only. You will never find the same frequency on any other earth. It is the same for every other earth in the meta-verse.” Cisco explained, her hands moving to create a little portal. “The entire universe vibrates at a frequency that keeps all those other frequencies in play – without the frequencies, each earth will fall apart. In that same vein of explanation, when you go from earth to earth, your frequency merges with the frequency of the earth you are now on.

“Take Harry, his earth frequency is lower pitched than ours. It probably has something to do with all how dark it is, but nonetheless, it’s a low pitched frequency that resonates like a church organ. Our earth resonates at a slightly higher pitch and you can tell how long he’s been here because of how his pitch frequency surrounding him has mellowed and become a more medium pitched noise.”

Caitlin nodded along, trying to wrap her head around everything that was being said. It sounded more sci-fi, superhero-y than actual science, but given what her life had become in the last two years, Caitlin figured that it was probably going to be the norm. “So you’re saying that Zoom doesn’t resonate at the frequencies he’s supposed?” She asked, “Is that why you weren’t able to take his speed?”

Cisco nodded, “His frequencies are all wrong, it’s like he’s mixing them.” She replied and Harry cleared his throat as he stood over them.

“He’s stealing speed from speedsters, could that be why?”

Caitlin watched as Cisco stare off in the distance again before nodding. Her eyes though. Caitlin had seen Cisco during her most thoughtful moments, but her eyes never glazed over like she was no longer there. And hell, Caitlin thought, maybe Cisco wasn’t there anymore. In the two weeks, they had been working on trying to figure out exactly what it was that Cisco could do besides visions, breeches and blasts, they hadn’t gotten as far as she’d liked. Who knew if astral projection wasn’t part of it.

“Speed force – the thing that all speedsters rely on – can’t function like that.” Cisco finally said after a moment of silence. “There are rules to these things.”

“How do you know?” Caitlin questioned, interest lacing her voice. The conversation, as odd as it was, was managing to distract her from the loss they had taken. “How do you know how these things work when you don’t even fully understand your powers?”

“Earth-52.” Cisco replied, “On Earth-52, there is a Cisco Ramon who learnt all of this while apart of something called the Justice League – yeah, I know, horrible name. Anyway, on that Earth, Cisco Ramon works with superheros and working with a league like that means that he got more information than most of the other Earths. He just explained everything; he even explained that Reverb was right. We could be gods, I could be a god. My powers could shake the world apart, at least on his Earth, and he explained the connection we have with the speed force even though we aren’t connected like speedsters. That’s why I’m able to disrupt it, Caitlin, because it’s part of the universe and so am I.”

“Wow, to be one with the universe.” Caitlin smiled despite the dark way her friend had explained everything, “You’re basically a Jedi.”

Cisco broke out in a smile and Caitlin accepted that as a win for the day. If anything else went wrong, the fact that she was able to cheer up Cisco instead of the other way around, meant that it was a day that they had won at least something. Harry sighed at how the conversation went from something that he wanted to talk about to something silly and walked away, muttering under his breath.

“That was so nerdy.” Cisco muttered as she rolled her eyes, pushing her chair forwards to meet the nearest computer. “I love it.”

“Yes, well someone made me rewatch the entire six movies because apparently, and I quote, ‘you don’t understand them Caitlin, it’s more than just a fun space story’.”

“That’s because it is more than just a fun space story.” Cisco said, before looking down, “Thanks, Caitlin.”

“Anytime.” Caitlin said, actually meaning it.

 

* * *

 

Caitlin didn’t go home, no she went up to the fifth floor and curled into a ball on the bed. She managed not to cry as the cold seeped from her body, enveloping the entire room into a cold mist. Though she had managed to hide her fear up until she was able to sneak away, that didn’t mean that she hadn’t felt it following her the entire day. Sure, Barry was stable and his body was healing from all the damage that Zoom had given him but that…

That didn’t take away the fact that she was terrified.

She had gone through a lot with Team Flash, from Hartley’s short-lived betrayal, Fake Dr. Wells long term betrayal, losing Eddie and then everything that came from the Singularity. Zoom though, was a whole new level. Reverse Flash had been fast, had wrecked them, but Barry had gotten faster and in the end, they used their misery from that betrayal to become stronger as a family. She had gotten stronger. From that moment when her powers came to her and the unbending terror that had hit her, to who she was at the moment, she had become stronger.

But it didn’t seem liked mattered. Someone was always stronger, there was always someone better than them and they had to train harder, work harder and for what? At the end of the day what did they get for winning? Sure they saved the city, but in the long run it didn’t matter. The city would gain a new terror the next day, or if the world was feeling nice, it’d take a week or two, but never too long.

Caitlin Snow had never been very optimistic, that just wasn’t in her DNA. It wasn’t who her mother had raised, but she had tried. She had tried so goddamn hard to be optimistic in the face of the danger they continued to deal with. It was hard though, she thought as she curled tighter. Little snowflakes drifted from the ceiling to the floor, softly hitting the tiled floor and melting away. That was one of her favorite things about STAR Labs, the insulated and heated floors. Back when she worked on the particle accelerator, she had loved taking off her heels and walking around her office while working on a project.

Now the heat kept her warm when her powers were out of control.

She sighed into her pillow, trying to rein in the cold before she turned the entire room into a winter wonderland. She couldn’t lose sight of what they were doing. They were doing more than just saving the city only for it to be attacked once again; they were saving hundreds of people who would remember it for the rest of their lives.

“Come on, Caitlin, focus.” She had to focus on the fact that they were doing good, that there was hope that one day the fighting would be done and theirs would be a peaceful city. It was hard though and –

Snow fell heavier as her thoughts drifted from good thoughts back to the pessimistic thoughts that had often filled her mind during the earlier days of Team Flash. Back then she had felt like helping Barry meant that they were in over their heads even worse then they were when they were just dealing with the fallout of the explosion. She had been filled with sadness from losing everyone and everything and even Barry’s ever optimistic personality hadn’t been enough to penetrate her thoughts. Of course, eventually it did. Enough hanging out with Barry, Iris, Joe and Eddie had broken a small hole in her frosty walls.

She turned slightly as she heard the door creak open. She had expected either Hartley or Harry looking for her, but instead it was Iris. The other woman gave her a quick smile and moved to sit on the bed, pushing off her shoes as she did so. Neither of them spoke as Iris pulled the blankets back and slid in next to Caitlin, laying her head on the pillow.

“We’ll make it through this.” Iris said, her voice low. “Barry’ll get better, we’ll get stronger and we’ll defeat Zoom.”

“To quote Cisco, how do you know?” She asked, her eyes following the snow that was still falling.

Iris held her hands up and opened her mouth, trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue or hands. After a moment, she replied, “Because I believe in us. I believe that we’re going to make it through this and we’re going to come out even stronger.” She turned to Caitlin and continued, “Now, let’s stop the snow and get some sleep because I have Barry watch at 3 in the morning.”

Caitlin closed her eyes and focused on pulling in the cold and Iris’s warmth next to her. She could do this, she could do this and not have to rely on pulling in some form of heat to do so. “Okay, but wake me up when you do, I want check his vitals again.”

Iris nodded before closing her eyes, “Got it, Cait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love comments and I love kudos. Come find me on tumblr as well!! I'm baelfirecassidy.
> 
> Also, throwing some shade at the show. Caitlin is not a fully licensed medical doctor. She is a bio-engineer according to everything, which means that while she would've taken some medical classes, she's missing quite a few classes that would qualify her to be a medical personnel. Unless I'm missed a part in the show that explained her amazing medical prowess, I'm not convinced. 
> 
> Also yes, there is a reference to the comics in this, especially concerning Caitlin's powers. I mean, one of my favourite things in the comics was the fact that Killer Frost siphoned heat from people/things and so I brought that here. We'll get more in depth with them later, but for now, know that when Caitlin is super stressed and cannot control her powers, she has to be careful around people in fear of stealing their heat and killing them. It's why she's often wearing the meta bracelets, but they only dampen her powers so that she has an easier time controlling them.
> 
> Also (I use that a lot) I love Iris. If you hate Iris, this is probably not going to be the fic for you. I love that Iris has such a good friendship with both Caitlin and Cisco during the times we get to see them interacting. Like that friendship is something I live for.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talking, talking, talking? Look, it's a filler chapter with some cute stuff in it, what do you expect? Also like there's some Reverb showing up at the bottom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy my chapter filled with little tidbits about stupid things and a lot of girl interaction.

Iris slipped out of the bed as her watched beeped, Caitlin was still asleep and if she left as quietly as she could, she was hoping the other woman would stay that way. Her friend had been overworking herself far too much in the last few weeks, not that Iris had much room to talk. Working as a reporter was a harder job than she had expected and she was putting so much time in it.

Her feet carried her as she walked towards the Cortex, the sound of a piano playing drifting from the intercom speakers. She smiled to herself as she pulled her hair up out of her face and walked in, noting what was going on. Cisco sat in one of the office areas, her eyes drifting from what work she was doing to the medical bay area where Joe and Henry sat, watching Barry. Iris debated whether she should relieve her father and Henry of their watch or go talk to the other woman she had barely gotten to know before she realized that once both of them was gone, Cisco would naturally wander over.

“Hey,” She whispered to her dad, patting him on the shoulder in greeting. “Why don’t you guys go get some rest, it’s my turn now.”

Henry looked like he was going to argue – so was Joe for that matter – but she gave them her patented Look and they both nodded. Henry leaned forward, kissing Barry on the head before Joe did the same, both of them hugging her as they walked out. She wrapped her arms around herself as she moved to Barry’s side, grabbing his hand. She was so worried about him. She wished that she had been there during the fight at first, then she realized that she had nothing to offer them besides being a cheerleader.

She felt so useless to the team so often, but it was Barry that always reminded her that she was the Heart and every team needed a heart. She shook her head, clearing her mind from the thoughts that plagued her. Iris wiped her eyes and looked back up, towards the other office and her eyes met with Cisco’s. The other woman gave her a small wave before dropping her head and Iris smiled.

Cisco had been a predominant villain in the story that was Barry’s Flash identity. From the moment she showed up in Central City, attacking a bank and blasting the windows out from the entire street as she got away, to kidnapping Iris, herself, and holding her hostage. Of course, Barry always argued against using the world ‘villain’ for her.

“She doesn’t seem like a villain, Iris!” He had told her after she started working with them, “I mean I know she kidnapped you, but I mean, she took you to the mall to shop.”

Of course, Joe had then chimed in with, “Yeah. After, of course, she had her little thugs clear the mall out, harming dozens in the process.”

And, really Iris had to go with her dad on that. But at the same time, Barry had a point, she could see that. From her second kidnapping, Iris could tell that Cisco was just lonely and sometimes, lonely people lashed out. Of course, there was more than that, Iris wasn’t a stupid girl. There was other factors that led to this lifestyle of the other woman's and while they mattered, none of them mattered to those who she hurt. And that was something they couldn’t forget: Cisco was a criminal. A petty one, yes, but still someone who had used her powers for bad.

Though that didn’t mean that she couldn’t be someone who used her powers for good, Iris thought, her hand squeezing Barry’s as she heard the lightest sound of movement. She busied herself with fixing up Barry’s blanket as she waited for the steps to come closer, and they did.

A knock on the window and Cisco stood there, looking lost, “Do you need anything?” She asked, looking everywhere but at Iris’s face.

“Wouldn’t mind some company right now.” She answered, looking up and giving another smile, “Unless you’re busy. I wouldn’t want to take you from your work.”

Cisco shook her head, but didn’t move in farther. Iris knew this was coming, the times that she had managed to finish work early and not have to follow up on all the sources, spending hours either typing away at work or doing research at home, Cisco avoided her. She was sort of offended. Iris didn’t know her as well as Caitlin probably did but Cisco was the only of Barry’s villains that she was on first name basis with and already had her number in her cell phone.

“I’m sorry.”

Iris tilted her head and frowned, “About kidnapping me?” She asked.

“Yeah, for that and for holding you hostage, treating you as just another extension of The Flash, acting as though the emotional trauma I was probably putting you through didn’t matter as long as I got back at the Flash.” Cisco paused, seemingly going over words in her head, “I acted like an ass. I should’ve realized that kidnapping you just to get to Barry was wrong and I’m sorry that I forced you into the Damsel in Distress trope over and over again. It was wrong of me and I’m sorry.”

“Well, thank you for apologizing for that. I, tentatively, forgive you.” She motioned for Cisco to enter the room further and pushed out a chair for her to sit in, “I don’t fully trust you; you’ve done a lot of bad – mostly petty things but still bad things, so you’ve got to earn that trust, but I do forgive you.”

“Thank you.”

Iris nodded, “Look, Cisco, as horrible as you were to kidnap me for no other reason than the fact that Barry cares about me, you do seem like a nice person and the stories Caitlin tells about you prove that you were once a good person. You can be that again and according to everyone here, you’re trying and that’s all we can ask from you.”

The other woman smiled, the bun on the top of her head moving as she nodded slightly. Iris smiled again and turned back to Barry, her thoughts a confusing place to be. Cisco fiddled with the blanket that hung off the edge and Iris liked that little human nervousness that the other showed. Back when Cisco was still going by Vibrance as she was running in and out of Iris’s life only to kidnap her and take her somewhere, the other woman seemed so cold and distant. Yeah, they’d have “fun” by going to the movies or going to the mall, but that didn’t take away from the fact that Cisco as Vibrance always seemed like the type of woman who lived her life by just simply lifting and eyebrow and getting what she wanted.

She was a threat as Vibrance, but when she wasn’t in that costume, wasn’t playing that role, she was fun and interesting and Iris could see them becoming friends.

“How did you meet Barry?” Cisco asked, her voice cutting through Iris’s thoughts again. “I never asked you that before, have I?”

Iris shook her head, “Nope, you haven’t.” She let go of Barry’s hand and leaned back in her chair, looking at the other woman, “I met Barry back when we were kids. My dad and I moved into his neighborhood and we went to the same school and we became friends. After his mother died and his father was arrested, he moved in with my dad and I. We became even closer because of that and he was essentially my best friend growing up.”

“So you two have always had each others back?”

“Yeah,” She smiled, “We have. We can count on each other to always be there for the other no matter what. Even when we’re fighting, we’re close.”

“Sounds amazing.”

“It is.” Iris responded, “Do you have anyone like that? Any siblings?”

“Caitlin is – was that person for me. We were close from the moment we met, but other than that...” She trailed off, biting her lip. “I have two brothers. My dad always said that we had to watch out for each other, because you could only really count on your siblings to protect you always. He wasn’t exactly wrong.”

Iris watched her as she paused, waiting for her to continue. She watched how the other woman fidgeted with her hands, letting go of the bed sheet and looking off in the distance. There was a memory that was associated with her words that weren’t all good and Iris, ever the reporter, wanted to know it. “My brothers, Armando and Dante, was here for the particle accelerator accident. They waited in the parking lot when it exploded and they were still waiting out there when I was released from the scene at like five in the morning. They were also the only people I alerted when I got back.

“They told me that they were affected as well, only in slightly different ways then me. I thought they were going to hate me. I mean, here I am, just coming back after disappearing for months and they’ve got abilities that they probably wouldn’t have gotten if I didn’t force them to be there, but they didn’t. They didn’t blame me because we are siblings. We protect each other.”

“Did they help you with, crime?” Iris asked, interest on her face. “I mean, most times you didn’t work with anyone but occasionally you’d work with two other guys, was that them?”

Cisco nodded, “Yeah, they were those guys. Armando’s Rupture, I made him that scythe he so loves and Dante goes by Soundstorm. They’re both not really good names but they wouldn’t let me name them.” She sighed goodnaturedly before shaking her head, “You won’t tell the others will you because I don’t want them to get arrested when they only helped me sometimes.”

“No, this can be a secret between you and me.” She looked pensive for a moment before adding, “Though, I honestly think Caitlin knows. She looked funny when we found out you were working with people during those art heists.”

“Probably. Caitlin has met my entire family so she probably guessed it right away.” Cisco smiled at that and wanted to keep the conversation going. It was the only thing, at the moment, keeping her mind off the fact that Barry still laid unresponsive in a hospital bed.

“So, tell me, what are your brothers like?” Iris prompted, hoping to get Cisco talking again. It seemed to work as the other woman brightened visibly and launched into a story.

 

* * *

 

 

“You didn’t wake me.” Caitlin said as she walked into the Cortex, a look of annoyance flashing across her face. Iris flashed her a smile as she waited for the other woman to grab a bottle of water from the fridge drawer. It would soothe her already frayed nerves and that meant that Caitlin would be more receptive to her reasons.

“Come on, Caitlin, I wasn’t going to wake you up after only have a few hours of sleep.” She replied after a moment, “I mean, you haven’t been sleeping well.”

Caitlin didn’t say anything against her argument, instead she nodded slightly before moving to sit in the recently vacated second seat. “How is he?” She asked and Iris gave a sympathetic look.

“He’s fine, Cait. You stabilized him yesterday and that hasn’t changed.”

“I know, but I’m not a doctor. I mean, I’m a doctor but I’m not that sort of doctor. I studied bio-medical engineering, not being a person’s physician.” Caitlin stumbled over her words before sighing, “I’m always scared that one day you guys are going to get hurt and I won’t be able to heal you guys because it’s outside of what I know.”

Iris shook her head, “No, I have one hundred percent faith in your and your abilities, Caitlin.” She gave the other woman a pointed look, “All of your abilities.”

“You shouldn’t.” Caitlin said, moving to run a hand through her hair. “So what have you been up to?”

“Well, I hung out with Cisco for a while. She actually just left about a half-hour ago.” Iris replied, fiddling with her coffee cup. “She popped to Jitters and brought everyone coffee, if you want any it’s in the microwave on the other side.”

Caitlin smiled and moved to get up, pausing once she was halfway out of her seat. “Wait,” She said, turning slowly to look at Iris who sat there with an innocent look on her face, “You let her go to Jitters by herself? And you’re drinking the coffee she got without checking to see if it was poisoned?”

“Caitlin,” Iris said, but Caitlin wouldn’t hear it.

“Look, Cisco was one of my best friends, but she’s spent the last year and a half trying to kill us and all around crime. What would possess you to put that much trust in her? Especially since she’s kidnapped you at least three times!”

“If we don’t give her at least a little trust, how can she prove she’s trustworthy?” Iris asked instead, ignoring Caitlin’s worries. “Plus, she apologized for kidnapping me.”

“...She did?”

“Yeah, she admits that it was wrong of her for doing so and said sorry.” Iris replied, “Now, go get yourself some coffee so we can continue to talk.”

Caitlin bit her lip but complied, walking the short walk to the other office and opening the microwave. She smiled as she noticed each cup had Cisco’s handwriting on it, marking which cup belonged to who. Iris obviously gave her the orders for everyone, but it was still cute. She grabbed her cup, lifting it to her lips. A frown made it’s way on her lips as she realized that it wasn’t coffee.

“She got me chai?” She whispered to herself. Her eyes watered slightly as she smelled the drink again. Back when they were working on the particle accelerator, she had taken to drinking a lot of coffee, which Cisco had said couldn’t be good for her and so at least twice a day, Cisco would replace her coffee with chai tea.

Caitlin smiled to herself and moved to close the microwave, going off to sit with Iris again. Maybe things really was looking up.

 

* * *

 

“Stop ignoring me,” Cisco muttered to herself as she stared out at the window. She had decided to sleep up in her old office in hopes of being able to focus as hard as she could to connect with Reverb. But something was wrong, her alternate self was ignoring her. He had never ignored her, not ever. Sighing, Cisco closed her eyes, “Come on, Francisco, pay attention to me.”

She took a deep breath, relaxing her body as she did so. Her mind reached out to Earth-2 and she searched for her counterpart, looking for him in the vibrations. She found him, smug look upon his face as he commanded new recruits for Zoom. He looked so in control that she felt slightly worthless. He felt her presence and she watched as a sneer make it’s way on his face as he dismissed the recruits. With no one else in the room, he turned and opened a portal.

“What is it?” He asked as he walked through the breach, lifting an eyebrow as he did so.

“Why are you ignoring me?” She asked instead. “You promised to never ignore me.”

Reverb rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, “What do you want?” He repeated.

Cisco moved from her position on the bed and looked up at him, “I want more information on Zoom.” She replied, crossing her arms in front of her as she came to stand in front of him.

“Hm. And why should I help you at all when you’ve turned yourself into a hero?” He questioned, walking around her as he did so. She felt so small around him, like she didn’t fully understand anything.

“Because,” She said, “You want my help in defeating him.”

“That’s the best you can come up with?” He laughed, “I could go to any other world and get help from one of them, you know. I mean, I only went to you because you were untrained, confused. It was easy. You were easy but now, you’re making it very hard.”

Cisco took a gasping breath as he spoke, a chill ran down her spine and she felt her heart sag. She had always known that Reverb was a self serving ass, but she didn’t expect him to ever admit it to her. “Do you want my help or not?” She asked after a moment of composing herself. He stopped behind her, moved the hair from her shoulder and leaned closer.

“That depends.” He answered, “Do I still get to become a god if I accept your help?”

“I promised you I would help you become a god, my alignment doesn’t change that.” Cisco said, shrugging lightly. Reverb seemed to accept her answer after a moment and moved off to sit on her old desk.

“Then come, let’s talk about my least favorite person.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forcefully creepy Reverb is literally just being a douche and I promise we're going to get to see more of their conversation at a later point! Also, next chapter will be much longer and more intense, it's going to be an "episodic" chapter, which means it follows an episode. I just know you guys will love it based on how much fun I've had writing it. As always, I love kudos and comments and if you have any questions on this story/universe, come ask me over @baelfirecassidy on tumblr!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chasing, kidnapping, fights and emotional turmoil as Grodd makes his appearance!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is long! I did tell you guys that it would be but I mean, I didn't really expect it to get this long. But since it is, I hope you guys enjoy it!

Cisco yawned as she got up and stretched from the chair she was sitting on. Barry was in the main part of the Cortex, attempting to walk as Joe and his father watched him closely. When he had awoken, he hadn’t been able to feel his legs, which had been a worry. Henry and Caitlin had been able to pinpoint what had been wrong with him and so they had started a physical therapy program for him.

It was working. Slowly, but it was working. Cisco paused, leaning on the doorway as she watched Barry, his once optimistic eyes filled with hopelessness. She didn’t like seeing him like that, it went against everything his vibrations said about himself. Deciding that she’d have to be the one to cheer him up, she pulled on her biggest grin and walked out. “Doing great, Barry.” She said, bypassing him to sit in the chair closest to him. “Walked for even longer than yesterday.”

“It’s not enough.” Barry said, “It’s never going to be enough.”

Cisco frowned, “Is this what you were like when I first blasted your speed away?” She joked, before shaking her head, “Seriously, Barry, you’re doing great for someone who’s back was just broken.”

“A normal person would’ve been paralyzed for the rest of his life,” Iris said, walking in the Cortex with a coffee carrier and a smile on her face.

“I only went six steps.” Barry argued and Iris kissed his cheek before moving on to kiss her dad’s cheek.

“Six steps is a lot more than no steps.”

“It’s been a week, Barry.” Caitlin said from her spot at her desk, “Give yourself time.”

“We don’t have time. Zoom can come back whenever and we aren’t going to be prepared.” Barry said, leaning into the wheelchair that they had brought out of some storage cupboard for him. “I can’t help anyone like this.”

Cisco bit her lip, looking away. “Barry, Zoom hasn’t been by since I blasted him. We might not see him for a while.” She replied, leaning against the back of the wheelchair and putting her head on his shoulder.

“Oh, he’ll be back.” Harry said, walking into the room, large gun strapped across his back.

“Playing Terminator?” She asked, rolling her eyes.

Harry gave her a look, but ignored her as he grabbed his bag, “I am going to do something about it. I need access to your breach room and speed cannon.”

“Why?” Hartley asked. Cisco waltzed up to him and grabbed his coffee from his hands and took a sip. She made a face and handed it back to him before making her way to Iris, who smiled and handed her a cup.

“I am going back home to deal with Zoom myself.” Harry said and Cisco almost spat out of her drink.

“What?” She asked but was drowned out by Joe speaking.

“You bring your mess to our world, screw everything up and then go home? Sounds like someone else.” Joe growled, walking over to jab Harry on the chest. Harry glared at him and pushed his hand away.

“Again, that was not me.” He said simply. “I need to go deal with Zoom once and for all before someone else gets killed.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Hartley asked, “Because if you have a plan and you’re not sharing it…-”

“I will figure it out when I go home.”

“You can’t.” Cisco said, “You can’t go through the breach.”

“Excuse me.”

“If you can figure out how to defeat Zoom on your earth than you can do it here.” She said, moving forward, a stern look on her face. “You don’t get to bring your problems here and then walk away when things stop working the way you want them to. We need you.”

“What is needed, Ramon, is for me to go back to my earth and I will do it with or without your help.” He said, staring her down. Cisco glared back, not fazed by his cold blue eyes. She had had worse stare downs from her Earth-2 counterpart and she was determined to make Harry stay.

It was crucial to the plan Francisco told her about.

“Come on, then.” Hartley said, cutting through their staring contest. “If you want to leave so bad, we’re done stopping you.”

“Hartley!” Caitlin pulled the man aside and glared at him. “What are you doing?”

“If he wants to leave so bad then why are we stopping him?” Hartley asked, scoffing slightly, “I mean the last time he helped us, Allen almost got killed and --” He stopped looking towards Harry and then looked back at Caitlin, “Plans from people wearing his face don’t end well for us.”

“Hartley,” Caitlin said but Hartley cut her off.

“If he doesn’t want to be here, then we’re better off without him.”

Joe laughed, “Yeah, let’s let him go.”

“We can’t do that.” Cisco said, right as Harry turned away from them, leaving the Cortex. She groaned and wiped her face with her free hand. “He can’t leave yet.” She looked amongst the blank looks of people and sighed again, “Whatever, I’m going back to my cell.”

She knew they’d be talking about her after she left but she didn’t care. Her mind was on what she had talked about with her counterpart. His plans-. No, she had to stop thinking of them as just his plans, they were their plans and they were going to be ruined if Harrison Wells left Earth-1. She moved to sit on the bed of the cell, the door open behind her and leaned against the metal wall. She had a list of priorities in her mind and if she relegated any of them to a lower position than they deserved, then all of them would be messed up.

_“Zoom is… a megalomaniac. He craves power because he feels weak.” Reverb spat the word out, smug look on his face. “He’s nothing more than a schoolyard bully with some power.”_

_“Yet that power is what’s giving him the ability to screw over a lot of people.” She had said, sitting on the futon couch. Reverb looked down at her from his spot on her former desk and tilted his head, looking contemplative._

_“True, but ultimately, like so many in his position, he is still weak. Take that power from him, he will have nothing to stop him from falling.” Reverb shrugged off her concerns as if they weren’t planning the death of a man, of a monster that needed both of them at peak condition._

_“And how are we taking that power from him?” She asked. Reverb smirked at her, a little bit of happiness showing in his dark eyes._

_“Violently.”_

She wondered how Reverb had gotten so cold and violent, but she figured it was just like how she had gotten that way. The voices were persuasive and she had left behind everything and everyone just for the power she got to taste in the beginning. She scrubbed her face again, trying to rid her mind of those thoughts and focus on how she could get Harry to stay. She was so in thought that she didn’t hear Caitlin’s tell-tale heels clacking on the metal grating.

“Hey,” She said, smiling. “Can I come in?”

Cisco smiled, ridding her mind of every thought she had besides how much she missed Caitlin, “Sure come on in.” She patted the spot next to her and Caitlin moved to sit, sliding her heels off her feet.

“So, I talked with Harry.” She started, “And so he’s going to stay for a little bit longer.”

“What do I care?” She found herself saying even though there was a relief that filled her entire body. Caitlin gave her a simple lifted eyebrow and she found herself ducking her head, “Come on, let’s talk about something other than him. Please.”

“Okay,” Caitlin acquiesced, shrugging lightly. “Why do you care so much about him leaving?”

“Caitlin, complete opposite of changing the subject.” She said but answered nonetheless, “I didn’t – I didn’t get the closure you guys got. My mind still hasn’t caught up with the fact that my mentor, my hero, was in fact evil.”

“Ah, but Dr. Wells wasn’t because he was actually dead for years before we ever met him. Who we interacted with was actually Eobard Thawne, the distant relative to Eddie Thawne, Iris’s former fiance who sacrificed himself for us.” Caitlin said matter-of-factually. She gave another small smile and playfully bumped Cisco’s shoulders, “I get it though.”

Cisco leaned forward, putting her head on Caitlin’s shoulder. “I’ve made so many mistakes Caitlin, I don’t want to make anymore but I can’t help it.”

“I know Cisco, but it’s fine. Everyone makes mistakes.”

“Yeah, but not everyone makes the same mistakes and I doubt that we’ll find another person who let voices in their head control their every move.” She played with her nails, chipping off the paint that Iris had put on early in the morning. “I’ve claimed to be a genius yet I’m acting like an idiot. I should just let him leave so we can work on the Zoom problem ourselves.”

“I’ve got a voice in my head.” Caitlin said after a moment. “I call her Killer Frost. She’s very- she’s not nice.”

Cisco looked up and frowned, “What?”

“It’s a part of my own powers.” Caitlin replied, leaning her head on Cisco’s, “She wants control and I’m scared to give it to her because what if I become like my Earth-2 counterpart? So I force her back with my own meta-human cuffs and I don’t let her come out unless I need to access my powers. Though, I’m scared that one day while using my powers, she’s going to take over for good and I’m not going to get to come back. Caitlin Snow will be gone forever and Killer Frost will be left in her wake.”

“Caitlin,” Cisco said, sitting up, “Do the others know?”

Her friend laughed lightly, “Yeah, we met Killer Frost – Earth-2’s Killer Frost – and she explained it all to me. Dr. Fake Wells gave me these powers and he told me that I had been given a gift that I would thank him for. The appearance of her just showed that I’m not strong enough to keep my evil side at bay.” She looked down at her own hands and Cisco followed her line of sight, grasping the cold hand that her friend just kept staring at.

“No.” She said, “That’s not who you are Caitlin, you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. Just because that – just because someone says that you’re going to turn evil doesn’t mean you will. You’re stronger than anything that life has thrown your way. You stood strong even after Ronnie was-even after we though Ronnie died and you stayed strong even though you didn’t need to when Dr. Wells asked us to stay. You stood by the side of the man who blew a hole in your home city and instead of blaming him for Ronnie’s death, you told him that it wasn’t his fault. You are strong Caitlin.”

Caitlin said nothing her eyes still on her hands as Cisco frowned. “Caitlin?” She asked, moving back a little as Caitlin began to move forward, her eyes blank. She followed her friend out the cell door and down the ramp before she moved forward to stop her, “Caitlin, what are you-”

She never noticed the fist forming and only just noticed it right before it clocked her right in the nose, the shock of it and falling to the floor stopping her from noticing what direction her friend wandered off towards. After a minute of her laying on her back, she moved to sit up and look for Caitlin, ask her what the hell just happened. Her nose ached slightly and she realized that it had been a while since she had been punched in the face.

“Hey,” She said nasally as she walked into the Cortex. Barry sat in his wheelchair looking at a screen of some guy, “have you seen Caitlin?”

“No, why?” He asked, turning to look at her. “Whoa. What happened?”

“She punched me in the face for some reason while we were talking.”

“What?” He asked right as Joe’s phone rang. Cisco paid the older man no heed as she moved to check the security cameras.

“Yeah, we were having a heart to heart when she just – pow! - hit me in the face and then ran away.” She shook her head, her eyes scanning the black and white images, “I mean, I know she's been mad at me, but punching me is so not a Caitlin thing to do."

"Barry." Joe said, interrupting them, his face solemn. "Gorilla hair was found on the victim."

"What?" She muttered as Barry's face went through several different changes. Shock stayed on his face as he rubbed his eyes.

"Grodd."

"Yeah."

"Grodd?" Cisco asked, trying to go through her memory in search of the name. But nothing showed up, leaving her confused. “What’s a ‘grodd’? And what does gorilla hair have to do with anything?”

“Grodd was a gorilla that General Eiling and Dr. Wells worked on years ago. Caitlin worked on the project with them and Grodd likes her.” Barry explained, watching as realization dawned in Cisco’s eyes. “Did you work the project?”

“Haha, no.” Cisco shook her head, “One, it was before I showed up here. That was like two years or so before I showed up. Two, I’m a mechanical engineer. My projects were, usually, a whole different level then the bio-engineers.”

“Yeah, it was on the same level as mine.” Hartley said, sweeping into the room. He pushed Cisco’s chair from it’s spot and took over. “Thank goodness you two met when you first came here or else you’d never become friends.”

“I know you said that sarcastically, but I’m taking it at face value because I am happy we met. It was obviously the universe wanting me and Caitlin to be best buds.” Cisco pushed her chair back, moving Hartley and taking over again. “Anyway, she’s not on any screen, I already checked.”

“Did you check nearby cameras?” He asked, moving her again. His hands flew over the keyboard, bringing up the city’s security cameras. He entered a program but was pushed away by Cisco.

“Searching for one Caitlin Snow.” She watched the screen take Caitlin’s work picture and search through the city’s cameras, going through them faster than anything she had seen. “Amazing program, who set it up for you?” She asked.

“It’s my program.” Hartley said.

She laughed, “Cute, but who augmented it so it was better than whatever you set up?” She asked. “This is better than anything you could’ve made.”

“Our friend...” Barry cut in, his voice rising slightly, “Felicity made it for us. Well, not made it, she just added to Hartley’s program already. It was a great program before, but I mean, she made it greater, which is what ‘augmented’ means so obviously you… I’m going to shut up now.”

“So, Grodd takes Caitlin because…?” Cisco left the question off, waiting for some answer. She had never heard much about what was done to Grodd while she worked at STAR Labs. Actually, she had never heard anything. Grodd never came up, she never went down to the area where he and his fellow gorillas sat in their cages and that was life. She was a mechanical engineer and by time she showed up, Grodd and his testing was old news.

“Caitlin was always kind to Grodd during the testing done on him.” Hartley answered, “I’m surprised she never talked about her pet project to you.”

“You have a ‘Grodd’ too?” Harry said, walking in the room and interrupting Cisco’s come back. She’d have to remember it for later. He looked around the group, “I am constantly surprised by the similarities of our two earths.”

“You have talking gorillas on your earth too?” Joe asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Harry nodded, “Oh yeah, a lot.”

“Remind me to never go there,” He said to Barry, who smiled and nodded.

“So why would Grodd take Caitlin?” Harry asked.

Hartley sighed, he hated repeating himself. “Grodd probably wants her help with something.” He replied, “She worked on him when the project was still ongoing and probably hopes that she can help him. But then again, giant talking telepathic gorillas don’t tend to share their hopes and dreams before kidnapping people.”

“Isn’t sarcasm below you?” Cisco asked, pushing herself back to the desk, frowning as she did so.

Hartley gave her a side eye, “No, the people I use sarcasm on are below me.”

“Guys, serious problem here.” Barry said, cutting into their budding argument. “Can we focus.”

Cisco nodded after shooting Hartley another glare. She knew better, she really did, but Hartley always rubbed her wrong. “Thing is what do we do even after we find her?” She asked, “Did we have a plan to fight the giant gorilla?”

“Can’t be that hard, Ramon.” Harry said, moving to push both of them away from the computer. “And how about instead of trying to find Caitlin, we try to find the gorilla that has kidnapped her; there has to be sightings of it.”

Hartley nodded and joined him in rewriting the program to search the internet for talks about giant gorillas in Central City and then map out where those sightings came from. Cisco watched them before deciding that she’d do her own search. She moved away from the Cortex and went to find something of Caitlin’s that she used often. Her room upstairs was filled to the brim with things; including a picture of her, Caitlin and Ronnie taken just weeks before the planned date of turning on the particle accelerator.

Cisco sighed as she stared at it, life was so easy then. She reached for the picture but stopped short. She had gotten express permission to enter this room years ago, back when it was just her and Dr. Wells and Caitlin. Her and Caitlin had often found themselves curled up together lamenting everything. Her hand curled around the picture frame and she sat down on the bed that Caitlin had her and Dante move up up the several floors the same month that they had lost everything and focused.

The world faded away to the blue. A dark room amongst flashing lights and there was Caitlin, laying on the floor. Cisco ran to her, her hand hovering over the image of her friend. She looked fine, unharmed but seeing Caitlin in such a helpless position hurt Cisco’s heart. She stood back up and looked around, not finding anything that spoke to where it was. She moved across the room fast as she could as she held on tight to the images.

A sharp whistle blasted through the blue tint and Cisco turned hard to look for the noise; Caitlin was still laying motionless on the floor and she was alone in the room. Her breathing harshened inside the vibe and outside, the whistling noise growing in volume. She moved to step up on a crate but when she tried the noise forced her down. She bent down clutching her head and the blue faded.

“She’s okay.” Cisco whispered softly, leaning down in the bed. Her head was pounding, something that hadn’t happened since she first got her powers and she knew if she was half paying attention, she’d notice that her nose was bleeding. She waited for her head to stop pounding and her nose to stop bleeding before she forced herself off the bed. She walked through the halls, her mind going a mile a minute.

She didn’t know why but for some reason, whatever whammied her mind and forced her from her vibe, had caused problems with the control she had with her powers. Her conscious mind was drifting from world to world. She tried to focus really hard as she came up to the Cortex and watched from the sidelines as they talked.

“Caitlin’s fine.” She managed to say after a moment. Her voice sounded tired as she spoke and she tried to force it away, but she couldn’t. “I vibed her and she’s fine.”

“Are you?” Iris asked, coming up to stand next to her. “You don’t seem okay.”

“Something happened. Something whammied me mid-vibe. I was… I was figuring out where she is but I can’t.” Even thinking on it caused her head to hurt and images to flash by.

“Grodd is a telepath, remember. He’s probably the one that whammied you.” Hartley said, pushing Iris away and using a penlight to check her eyes. “Is he still in your mind?”

“Oh Hartley, didn’t realized you cared.” She grumbled trying to push him away but finding lifting her arms too hard. She hated this feeling; it far too much like when she first was getting control of the powers that she was cursed with. She had constantly felt weak, much too weak to do anything and that was when Reverb entered her mind.

He had better stay the hell out of it now, she thought. She wasn’t in the mood to go evil.

“Francisca.” Hartley said sharply, cutting through her thoughts.

“What?” She pushed him away, finding strength in her annoyance at him. “There’s no gorilla in my brain.”

“I asked you that over a minute ago.” His voice sounded far away and the world tilted. Okay, she was going down.

 

* * *

 

When her eyes opened, her head pounded and the darkness of the room called to her, but she couldn’t just pretend not to wake up. She turned her head just slightly and looked out at the Cortex, watching again from the sideline as the others talked.

“Hey, don’t get up right now.” Iris’s voice said, putting a hand out to stop her. “You fainted and almost hit your head on the ground. We’ve figured you might have a weakness towards telepaths.”

“Well, every hero has to have one weakness, right?” She grinned a little despite the fact that she hated it.

“Yeah, they do.” Iris agreed and handed her a water bottle. “So, you want to know what’s been going on since you fainted?”

Cisco nodded and listened as Iris explained the plan to use Harry to lure Grodd into a sense of false security in hopes to get him to release Caitlin. It was a good plan, only problem was that there would be no Flash for back up, not unless Henry and Joe were able to convince him to get back on the horse. Sitting up, she scooted herself off the medical bed and walked into the Cortex, leaving Iris mid-sentence. “I’m going with you.” She said, looking at Harry in a yellow body suit. She resisted the urge to laugh for a moment before she lost.

“Ramon.” He said sharply and she stopped.

“Sorry, sorry.” She waved him off, moving closer as she did. “But I’m going with you.”

Hartley sighed, “You do know you just woke up after fainting because you have a weakness towards telepaths?” He crossed his arms and shook his head, “Anyway, I’m going with Dr. Wells.”

“You guys need fire power in case this goes bad and since Barry is still out of commission, I’m going.” She met him face to face and crossed her arms. “They need someone that can help, not be a hindrance.”

“I have technology that can do what you can.” Hartley said harshly and Cisco bristled.

“You have nothing that can do what I can. You have technology that’s a cheap imitation of what I can do.” She growled, before a cold laugh escaped her lips, “And it doesn’t even do it half as good as me, which means “pied piper” you aren’t half as good as me.”

“I’m better than you. The only reasons Dr. Wells hired you was probably because he knew how easy it would be to manipulate you; fortunately for us, you disappeared before he could. Unfortunately, you came back.” Hartley shot back, “Wish you didn’t though.”

“At least I wasn’t fired.” She laughed again, looking at the shocked faces. “Ha! You never told you friends how Doctor Wells fired you because he no longer need his supposed ‘chosen one’? What a shame.”

“Least I didn’t let Ronnie die alone.” Hartley whispered, almost to low for her to hear. He looked at her with a disgusted face. “You locked your friend in a-”

“Don’t you dare bring Ronnie and Caitlin in this!” Cisco stepped closer, cutting off whatever remark he was going to say. “You don’t get to bring in people you don’t care about!”

“They’re my friends!” Hartley yelled.

She scoffed, “They aren’t, you don’t have friends. You’re too good for them, remember?” She had tried to extend friendship after their precarious beginning but Hartley had always sneered at them, telling her that he didn’t have friends and even if he did, he wouldn’t be friends with someone like her.

“Well, I was the only friend Caitlin had after she thought Ronnie died. The only friend she had after you went missing and then came back evil. The only person who knew her from before, before her entire life went to hell!” Hartley shook his head, “But I don’t expect you to understand that, because Cisquita lost nothing that night.”

“I lost everything that night, just like everyone else here!” Her voice raised as her hands clenched, she hated him calling her that. “I lost my friend, I lost my job and then worse, I got these powers. I lost a lot more than you did.”

“Guys,” Joe tried to break in for the third time, but her focus wasn’t on him, it was on Hartley. All the anger they felt towards each other, for whatever reasons, was coming to a head and it was a lot of anger. She didn’t know why, she hadn’t really seen him in over three years, but she held a lot of anger towards him.

“You lost nothing. You kept your job here and you still had Caitlin.” Hartley said, narrowing his eyes. “You have your brothers, your parents – even with you being a villain; you gained powers that are amazing.”

“I went crazy.” Cisco choked out the words that had haunted her since she had left STAR Labs, “I went crazy and I followed voices and I left my home for so long that my mother doesn’t talk to me, my father looks at me like I’m a disappointment. I brought my brothers here so they could see my big day and now they’re stuck being freaks like me. And because of these powers, I lost Caitlin, I lost Ronnie, I lost the man I looked up to my entire life and I don’t even know why!”

“What does it matter that he’s dead?! He wasn’t even the man you thought he was!” Hartley yelled, “He made sure that I lost my reputation when I was forcibly removed from the project because I noticed a flaw in the design. A flaw that he put there so that the particle accelerator would blow up so he could create the Flash. And then, after that, after everything he did to everyone of this city; after you went missing, he brought me back so I could finish the projects you started that he knew needed to be completed. He used you; he never really cared about you or anyone for that matter!”

“Shut up!” Cisco yelled back, her anger rising. The floor shook and she didn’t even try to hold it back. She hated that he was right, if what everyone said was true.

“No.” Hartley said, glaring at her. “Doctor Wells did not care about us, he wasn’t even Doctor Wells. He was a crazy man from the future and he ruined our lives. He did so without caring about what happened to anyone as long as Barry Allen became the Flash and I am so sick of hearing you talk about him like he was so great a guy. Get over your hero worship.”

“He was a great guy, to me.” She replied, her chest rising and falling fast. “No one took me serious: I was a girl in mechanical engineering, I was a genius, I was Latina, I came from a middle class background, my parents are immigrants. So, to me, he was a hero. He gave me a great job at 20 years old; he helped me get patents at 20 years old for ideas that I came up with. He never told me to use smaller words to explain things, he allowed me to be as creative as I wanted when working here. Even when working on side projects took time away from my work on the particle accelerator, he never minded!

He thought I was one of the finest mechanical engineers of this time when I was 20 years old. He took time to get to know me and he cared about me, at least to my face. So yeah, deal with my hero worship because that man still existed to me and he died without me getting to say good bye.”

“And he made sure that I was discredited,” Hartley said, his lips curled. “I was gay and a physicist and he made sure that I’d never get any work as long as I lived. I had to talk with my mother; my horrible, homophobic bitch of a mother. I had to sign a contract stating I wouldn’t date while I lived in an apartment she was buying for me because Doctor Wells made sure that I had nothing; not my patents, not the money I earned from ones that I had gotten while working at STAR Labs, not anything. Everything that I had cared about came from my research and he took it all away to protect a secret I had to sign a different contract promising never to tell.

You’re ‘hero’ took two weeks after you went missing to look me up and strong arm me into working here again. He didn’t care that you were gone, just that your suit would be complete in time for Barry to wake up. He didn’t care that he ruined my life and forced me into an abusive situation that, when I left it the first time, I cried tears of relief. He didn’t care that his particle accelerator almost killed Ronnie and destroyed so many lives; he only cared about getting what he wanted. And that was revenge on the Flash!”

“Doctor Wells gave me a home! I’m sorry that he did all that to you, but that doesn't change the fact that he made me feel welcome! Unlike every other parental figure in my life, he wanted me.”

“Because you had a use!” Hartley admonished, shaking his head. “How can you be this stupidly naive?”

“I’m not naive.”

“Yes you are! You trust everyone at the drop of a hat, that’s probably why you were so easy to manipulate into evil.”

“Being friendly now is considered bad?” Cisco scoffed at that, “Really? Well, keep that thought to yourself Hartley because I don’t care to hear it from someone who hasn’t had a friend that wasn’t forced to work with them.”

“I know it’s hard to admit this to yourself, but the fact that you’re jealous over my and Caitlin’s friendship is pitiful.” Hartley leaned closer, anger flashing in his eyes. “You left Caitlin alone and I was the only one she had. Deal with it.”

“That’s not my problem.” She growled, “It’s the fact that you think you can just waltz in after everything you put everyone through and act like you’re friendly with us!”

“Me?” Hartley laughed, the sound grating to her ears. She knew he had a point, but she hated that he took her spot so easily.

“Yes, you!” She shouted, “They have no clue what type of dick you were, what type of classist asshole you were. How you looked down on everyone that wasn’t you and Doctor Wells. How you used to make overtly sexist remarks about how I was just there because Doctor Wells wanted to keep moral up and hiring exotic pretty people made the majority of the labs happy. You were always a dick, Hartley and here you are, taking my place.”

“’Taking your place’? You have no place amongst this team.” Hartley snarled, “You left before it ever came to be!”

“But I was supposed to!” The words tumbled out quickly, “Had it not been for going crazy due to my powers, I would’ve been here. I should be here. I should’ve been here and not you. This should be my team. I should be the one to help Caitlin and I shouldn't have to share it with you.”

“And I shouldn’t have been tossed away because you showed up. People looked up to me before you showed up, before you started poking holes in everything I said with juvenile jokes and making me feel like an outsider, so looks like we’re at an impasse.”

The room delved into silence and Cisco started to feel the gnawing guilt in her stomach at leaving the others to have to sit through this. They had bigger things to do than listen to her and Hartley spill their guts on why they hated each other – not that they had done much besides scratch the surface – and come close to attacking each other. Breathing in, she tried to calm herself. She could still feel rumbles throughout the ground, but she wasn’t sure if it was just her.

After a few more moments of silence, Hartley spoke up, his voice calm and collected. “Caitlin needs to be saved, so let’s just end this.”

“Practical work related truce?” She asked and watched as his face went through several different emotions that she wasn’t even positive he had.

Nodding, he repeated, “Practical work related truce.”

“So,” Barry said from his spot, “Does this mean you guys are done now?”

They both turned to look at the group of five people standing there, uncomfortable looks and second hand embarrassment written all over their faces. A flush rose on her own cheeks as she let the full feeling of guilt stick inside of her. “Sorry.” She muttered, looking down.

Emotions had ran high and that left things unreliable, she knew that, but she wished that they hadn’t. Though it felt good to get most of her anger out, she hadn’t wanted to do it in front of everyone. She hadn’t wanted to show everyone the broken pieces of her, the pieces that still screamed from being crazy. And the fact that she had admitted that – out loud and for everyone to hear – brought that panic feeling back in her stomach. Caitlin could know about her being crazy, but these guys--

She wanted to join them, yes, but that was different than trusting them with that secret thought.

“Where were we before everything happened?” Cisco asked, cutting through the silence. “Had we narrowed down a location?”

“One of these three bell towers.” Hartley said, moving to bring up a map. The others jumped back into action, awkwardly trying to pretend that she and Hartley didn’t just have the biggest argument out in front of them.

“So, what?” Iris asked, “We go to each and every one in hopes of getting lucky?”

Joe gave his daughter a look and shrugged.

 

* * *

 

Cisco sighed as they exited the portal once again, Harry behind her in that yellow suit of Fake Doctor Wells’. This was the last bell tower in the entire city which meant that this was where Caitlin was being hidden. Hartley pressed a button on the tablet in his hand and then nodded. “One last time,” He said to Harry who sighed.

“I’m not doing the voice again.” He said angrily. “I’m Harrison Wells, I don’t have to practice a Harrison Wells voice.”

“Well you don’t sound anything like our Wells,” Hartley said, shaking his head.

“Our Wells did sound a little different: paternal, understanding and caring. His voice seemed to want to help you make your life better, yours don’t.” Cisco muttered, shrugging as they looked at her. “Whatever, can we just go?”

They both nodded and continued walking, Hartley and Harry talking behind her. She couldn’t stop herself from fidgeting as they walked closer; she was terrified. This would be the first thing she did as a hero – and yeah, it was just saving Caitlin – but it was important. And that was what made her nervous. What if she screwed up? What if she caused a bigger problem?

The walk up the stairs to the tower was long, exceedingly long. She was tired by time they got to the sixth floor, but she kept walking, knowing that Caitlin was just a little further away, held hostage. The door, rusty and old, came up before she knew it and she moved to the back – just ahead of Hartley, but behind Harry – and watched as Harry entered the room. His voice echoed, the Harrison Wells voice forcing her mind back to when she had worked at STAR Labs, and she waited for him to say the word.

When they had been planning this, they had decided on Harry having a safe word to say in case their plan wasn’t working, something that was easy to put in any sentence and not alert Grodd of them. Her hands clenched, her powers running through her as she waited. Some part of the vibrations screamed to attack – the fact that Grodd had managed to whammy her mid-vibe had caused her emotions to run red – but she knew she had to wait.

“Let her go, Grodd.” Harry’s voice drifted from the room, “She’s not going to be of help to us.”

The words made Cisco shiver, the feeling of an alternate timeline that already passed moving through her mind without leaving her in a vibe. She let it go, deciding that in the long run of things, it wasn’t worth the effort to try and follow it. “What’s taking so long?” She whispered to herself, but Hartley looked at her, his eyebrows lifting in a questioning look. She shook her head, ignoring him.

“I will make more of you.” Harry said, his voice that same paternal voice that Doctor Wells had always used, “It was always a part of my plan.”

Cisco could hear Caitlin moving around the tower, heading towards the door while Grodd was distracted and she waited patiently by the door, ready to help her friend. There was growling, a deep guttural noise, and Cisco felt it in her bones. She wanted to rip the door open, blast Grodd away from her people and take charge of the situation, but she couldn’t. Hartley grabbed her arm before she realized she was walking forward and stopped her, shaking his head lightly.

The door opened, a soft squeak that could be drowned out by the sound of Harry talking. Caitlin peeked her head out and sighed a sigh of relief when she saw them. She took the four steps it took to throw her arms around Cisco’s shoulders and sagged down. After a moment, she moved to do the same for Hartley, little tears of exhaustion and happiness running down her cheeks. “I was so scared.” She mumbled. “Killer Frost just kept whispering and I was so scared of losing control.”

“Well, you’re fine now. We’re going to get you back to the labs and Henry is going to check you over.” Hartley said, turning away from the door and starting to walk down the stairs. Cisco turned but paused, Harry had yet to come out of the room and he had no powers to protect him from a giant telepathic gorilla.

“What are you doing?” Hartley asked, his eyes sharp as he stared at her from the top of the stairs. There was another growl, louder this time and Cisco knew what she had to do.

Her coat fanned out as she turned away from him and blasted the door open, it falling off its hinges. She let her shoes tap tap tap on the old wooden floor as she walked in, ignoring the sigh Hartley gave off as he ran down the steps. Harry was on the floor near where she had her vibe and she forced her mind clear. She wouldn’t be much help if she got whammied again.

She stood still as she watched Grodd and he watched her; Harry had moved to a standing position and started following Caitlin's thoughts in sneaking around the tower as the gorilla was distracted. Her hands pulsed with powers and the little part of her that said attack fought hard against the chains that common sense had placed around it, she would wait for Harry to get downstairs before throwing another blast. She could feel her mental walls being attacked by the images that Grodd was hoping to give her, but she resisted, pulling on the energy of her other-selves to help.

Harry stood in the door and watched her, not leaving and she supposed that was the best she was going to get and lifted her arm. “I don’t want to hurt you Grodd.” She said as a warning, “But if you don’t desist in whatever you plan to do, I will.” Her voice echoed through the bell tower, loud and clear and she hoped that Grodd would do as she asked.

“Grodd doesn’t listen to you.” She heard in her head as the large gorilla grunted.

She tilted her head and sighed. So this was how it was going to be, she thought as she lowered her arm, sending a blast into the ground and rocking the entire tower. Crates fell and things broke and in all the mess, she ran to Harry, pushing him from the room. “Get out of here!” She yelled over the sound of Grodd bellowing. She opened a portal and pushed him through, following right afterwards. It led straight to outside the bell tower and they met with Hartley and Caitlin.

“Get back!” She said as she heard the shattering of glass and stood still as the ground shook with Grodd’s fall. The others stood behind her as they waited. Who would attack first, she wondered as she listened to the vibrations.

“Grodd, please!” Caitlin called but the gorilla roared and slammed his fist on the ground, shaking the earth. Cisco threw a blast at him and knocked him back, it wasn’t enough to knock him to far, but it was far enough that she could take the time to open a portal for them to go through.

Once Harry had disappeared through the blue shimmering portal, Cisco closed it and turned back to the fight.

 

* * *

 

When the portal closed behind Harry and Cisco was not there, Caitlin had to force back a moment of actual fear that Grodd had done something to her friend. She had just gotten the other woman back and the thought that she could lose her just as quickly rooted her to staring at where the portal had once been. It was only Barry’s questioning that forced her into action.

“We have to go to her.” She said, moving to a computer. Henry tried to check her, the wound on her head pulsing a little but it had since stopped bleeding, but she pushed him away gently. “I’ll get checked when we get Cisco back.”

“Caitlin,” Henry sighed, “you could have a concussion. I need to check you over.”

“We have to get Cisco back, it’s more important.” She said, looking at the camera that showed the empty parking lot. They had apparently left the bell tower and had went somewhere else to fight. Of course, Cisco would think about trying to get out of a major area if she was going to engage in a fight that might cause damage. She set the computer to check for any vibrational patterns and moved to get up. The world went sideways for a moment and Barry moved over to grab her.

He had abandoned the wheelchair when they had come back, too worried about them to think of staying in it. “You can’t go out Caitlin,” He said, shaking his head.

“Someone has to.” Caitlin argued, attempting to push him away. “I can’t lose Cisco, not now. Not when I just got her back.”

Iris moved forward, “You’re not going to lose her again, I promise.” The words offered some relief and she let herself be moved back to sitting.

It took a few minutes for the computer to find the most likely location of Cisco and Grodd, but in that time, they had come up with a plan. Barry would sonic punch Grodd through a portal to Earth-2’s ape sanctuary and that would be the end of it. Harry had helped them come up with the plan and though it was a good one, it hinged on the fact of Cisco opening the portal to the right place.

Barry suited up and sighed, “I’ll bring her back as soon as I can.” He promised before he zipped away. Caitlin watched as paper flew everywhere before she let Henry lead her to the medical bay. She would let herself get checked over while Iris and Joe manned the station.

 

* * *

 

Barry looked around, the underpass was for the most part empty but he could feel the ground shaking as he ran closer. As he came to a stop next to a concrete column, he looked around and took in a breath, it lasting only a second before he saw Cisco being thrown across the street and hitting one of the columns with a grunting noise. He sped over to her, kneeling next to her and shaking his head.

“Cisco?” He asked gently, bending to prod the girl. Cisco jerked away when she felt his hands touch her and he let a sigh of relief from his lips. “Please tell me you’re okay?”

“’m fine.” Cisco mumbled, turning her head to stare up at him. Surprise was evident on her face at the sight of him, but that soon gave way for a smile. “Flash, you’re here.”

“We’ve got a plan,” Barry said hurriedly, “I need you to open a portal to Earth 2’s ape sanctuary.”

She frowned and shook her head, “I don’t know where that is.”

Harry had been afraid of that. “I know,” Barry said, moving to help her sit up. “But Harry thinks that if you focus really hard and maybe use your counterpart’s memories, you might be able to do it.”

Cisco nodded, didn’t look convinced, but nodded nonetheless and moved sit up. “Help me up,” She demanded and Barry did so. They had managed to move her into a sitting position before Grodd bounded towards them.

“I’m going to distract him.” Barry said, moving to stand again. Cisco leaned against the pillar, breathing deeply.

Barry frowned as he came face to face with Grodd and took in a breath. He could do this, everyone relied on him. He ran forward and threw a punch, but Grodd blocked it, throwing him back. He landed nearby Cisco, getting up almost immediately. He ran forward, creating a tornado around the gorilla and then dropped him, leaving a large and deep impact.

“Grodd, we’re trying to help you.” Barry said, huffing lightly. “Let us.”

“Grodd need Caitlin help.” He grunted. The giant gorilla fidgeted, annoyed.

Barry rushed forward, throwing another punch, but Grodd caught him, tossing him to the side again. Getting up for the second time, Barry turned to Cisco and nodded. The woman had not yet gotten up, still injured and leaning against the concrete column. She gave him a nod and he speeded off, getting Grodd to follow him.

In his comms he could hear Iris and Joe coaching him, giving him advice and telling him where to go to avoid people. He could even hear Cisco’s breaths coming from her own comm set that he had given her when he helped her up. He listened to the words his family was saying before Cisco’s voice cut in.

“Get back to the underpass, I’m ready.” She said, her voice stronger than what it had been a second ago.

“Got it,” He replied as he ran back towards the other direction, stopping only to incite Grodd’s anger towards him again. The gorilla was faster than he was last time, stronger as well if the force of his hits had showed Barry. He was grateful for his super healing abilities because if not for them, he wasn’t sure where he’d be. Especially with the injuries that Zoom had given him.

Following that thought, he stumbled as he entered the underpass, Cisco standing against the column for support while a portal sparkled just beyond them. Grodd came up, ignoring the portal and growled at them. Barry struggled to hide the fear he felt. He was so off his game since Zoom and while the pep talk his father had given him – also the one Joe had given – had helped, he still couldn’t help but feel as though he wasn’t worthy to receive the title of hero from the city.

He turned to face Grodd, his face set in determination as he did so. Cisco stood off to the side, mostly trying to nurse the injuries she had, but obviously ready to step in if she was needed. Barry rushed forward, bypassing Grodd so that he could line himself up so he could just easily sonic punch Grodd into the portal and out of their lives. He ran far, hoping that Grodd wouldn’t turn his attention back to Cisco and then rushed back to the underpass.

His punch connected with Grodd but the giant gorilla didn’t move as far back as he wanted and again, he was thrown away like he was trash. Barry groaned as he connected to the pavement, the ground harder than it had been a second ago. “I can’t do this,” He said into his comms. “It’s too hard.”

“It’s going to be hard,” Iris said, her voice static-y. “But we believe in you, Barry. You can do this.”

“Come on, slugger.” His father’s voice said, “Get up.”

His words from earlier echoed in Barry’s mind as he listened to his father, the way he said that no matter what he chose – to continue to be a hero or to throw in the towel and return to his normal life – his mother and him would always be proud of him. He knew they would be, even if he decided that being the Flash wasn’t for him anymore, but of course, his father also knew that being the Flash meant something to Barry.

For so long in his life, he was considered nothing; just another nothing walking the same streets everyday working on trying to save his father from rotting in prison for a day longer. He hadn’t really been someone who could help many, despite what Joe said about what his work did for others everyday. His work as a CSI made him happy, there was no denying that, but his work as the Flash brought him something more than happiness. It brought him the feeling of being content, something that had been lacking in his life for a long time.

“I can’t, it’s too much for me.” He muttered in the comms. “He’s too much for me.”

“That’s not true,” A voice cut through the others. “You’re stronger than Grodd.”

Caitlin’s voice was soft, tired almost. He could hear Iris scolding Caitlin for getting up, and at Hartley for letting her get up, but she pushed on, her words filling him with some comfort. “Barry, you can’t just give up because you’re scared. You didn’t give up when we fought Eobard Thawne, and you won’t give up now. Zoom may have hurt you, he may have also beaten you, but he did not defeat you; you are not the sum of the battles you win, but the amount of times you get up after losing.” She paused, a moment of silence before she continued. “So get up and punch Grodd off of this earth.”

Barry groaned, the words of his friends and family enabling his inner strength to come out, and rose from the pavement. Cisco had engaged with Grodd once more, hoping to distract him from Barry and she was succeeding at that, despite her own wounds. Barry ran the two miles he needed and took a moment's breath, running forward with all his strength, throwing his arm out as he neared the underpass. Grodd let out a loud cry as he was thrown back, sucked up by the gravitational pull of the portal.

Sucked in, the portal closed in on itself and Barry sagged, folding in on himself and dropping his hands to his knees. He looked over to where Cisco had sagged herself against the support column. She had a huge smile on her face and when he walked over to her to grab her, she made no complaint.

“You did amazing, Flash.” She said as he scooped her up in his arms. He set off, heading straight for STAR Labs.

“You did pretty amazing yourself, Vibrance.” He replied right as the entered the Cortex. He let her down and Caitlin ran to her, hugging her despite Cisco’s protests.

“I’m in pain, Cait,” Cisco whined, trying to shake her friend off of her. “Can’t you see that?”

“I can,” Caitlin looked at Cisco with fire in her eyes as she pulled away. “If you ever leave me behind again, I swear, Cisco, I will hurt you. I will draw blood and make you exercise for hours.”

Cisco laughed before she was pulled away by his father and put in the medical bay, leaving Barry with the others. Iris pulled him into a hug, laughing as she did so.

“I’m proud of you Barry.” She said, kissing his cheek as she pulled away. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Same here, kid.” Joe said, pulling him into his own bear hug. “You did good today.”

Barry looked past them both, at Cisco who sat on the medical bed next to Caitlin while his father checked her over. A smile grew on his face, “I didn’t do it alone.” He looked at everyone in the room, “I had my team and that made me strong enough to defeat Grodd.”

 

* * *

 

Cisco dropped her head on the pillow once again; Caitlin had just left the room with strict directions to go lay down in her office and to not get up unless she needed help, which left her alone. Which meant that she was bored. Iris had left hours ago to go back to work and Hartley was ignoring her – which she thought was awesome. She hadn’t really gotten to know Joe, not because she didn’t want to but because she felt it was awkward: she had kidnapped his daughter and attacked his foster(?) son on many occasions. And Barry was busy with his father, who apparently hadn’t been around a lot after getting released from prison.

Which meant that she was alone. Her body was too hopped up on drugs for her to let her mind travel to the other worlds. Or well, she was terrified that if she did, she’d lose herself and with the success of today, that was the last thing she wanted. She pulled the blanket up to her shoulders and buried herself in it, hoping against hope that she could have a free day tomorrow. She was too tired to not have one and as much as she loved her new friends – which was they friends? She did count them as her people, but in the long run, did that really mean she counted them as friends? Well she wouldn’t know until the next day, when she felt less like she was running out of fuel – she needed a day away from STAR Labs and the thoughts that followed them.

The fact that Doctor Wells had stopped the experiments on Grodd only to use him for his own purposes, resonated with her. When she had heard what he had done, she thought it was amazingly sweet of him, rescuing an abused and embittered creature like he had done with her and wanting better for it. But that was all a lie, like the lies he had told her when she had joined STAR Labs.

Hartley’s words, for better or worse, was echoing in her mind. It was why she had attacked Grodd; she wanted to use the anger that she held for Hartley and Doctor Wells and she wanted to use it for go by hurting something that apparently Doctor Wells had cared for enough to call his ‘son’. She wanted that anger to be useful and it had, but not for long. Not long after she had popped herself and Grodd to a different location, she had been tossed to the side like a piece of trash.

It was only because Earth 93 her had taught her to create a sort of invisible vibrational shield that she hadn’t broken all her bones. She would have to thank Echo at some point, whenever she got to visit the other woman again.

Her thoughts dissipated as Barry knocked on the wall, a small smile on his face. “Can I come in?” He asked and she nodded, motioning for him to sit.

She moved to sit as she asked, “What can I do for the hero of the day?”

He grinned, a hand carding through his hair as he sat down. His leg jumped up and down the moment he did, making it obvious that he was done sitting still. “I wanted to visit the second hero of the day.” He answered.

“Well, I wouldn’t say I’m a hero.” Cisco blushed slightly. Though she knew that she did good, she didn’t think that she did anything that would allow her to use the title of ‘hero’. She wanted it to be, but she knew better.

“I would.” Barry said firmly. “So does Iris and Joe and Caitlin and Hartley, even if that’s a little more reluctantly then the others. Even Harry thinks you did amazing work.”

“I just didn’t want Grodd to hurt anyone I care about.” She half-lied. The words were true, but that wasn’t the only reason and since she didn’t want to share with Barry her emotional problems, she settled on the half lie.

“And that’s what makes you a hero.” Barry said, looking down at his own hands. “You’re desire to protect the others, despite it being completely stupid to just go out and battle a 1,500 pound telepathic gorilla without any back up, means that you are a hero. I would accept it if I were you, because having another person out there was nice. I might want more help from Vibrance.”

“Well, Vibrance will be more than willing to go out and help the Flash fight the bad guys.” She joked. She was serious though; having a person out there helping her- no, fighting with her, was amazing. She knew that she didn’t need anyone, at least if some of her other counterparts were to be trusted, but having a person there was nice. And Barry agreed, if his words were anything to go by.

“So, my dad says you should be able to walk around without help or anything tomorrow, anything you want to do?” asked Barry, the words coming out in a mumble.

Cisco nodded, “I have a friend, Kendra, who’s been apartment watching and I was wondering if I could leave for the afternoon?” She felt like a little kid asking to go over a friends house, back when her mother was so overprotective of her only daughter that she watched her like a hawk. Of course, times had changed that, Dante had usurped her position as her mother’s favorite and she had been left with nothing besides two parents who didn’t understand her and a pair of older brothers who had their own problems.

“Of course!” Barry smiled widely before it fell for a second, “Though, Caitlin might want you to wear your meta-cuffs.”

“I’m okay with that.” She replied, leaning back. She bit her lip before saying, “I would also like to hang.. uh, hang out with you.” After a moment she added, quickly, “And the others, if they wouldn’t mind. Kendra’s probably my only friend and that’s because we dated for a little before breaking up and decided that we should just stay friends.” She cut herself off before she kept rambling.

“I would love to hang out with you.” Barry said after a moment. “I’m also sure that Iris would love to as well as long as she doesn’t have work and I’m pretty sure we can convince the others to come along and hang out.”

The room delved into silence for a moment before Cisco opened her mouth, “Thank you.” She said. The words had many meanings to her, the fact that Barry was the first person to trust her and he saved her today and that his trust and his willingness to believe in her ability was a big reason she was still there, were just a few and she wasn’t sure that Barry would understand. Though when his eyes met hers and he nodded, smile still on his face as he did so, seemed to tell her that he did. He understood her and that he was going to be her friend from now on, helping her in the little ways that he did.

“Get some sleep, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Barry said as he got up, patting her on the leg as he left.

“Night, Barry.” She mumbled, closing her eyes and willing herself to sleep. Today had been a big day for her, even if she didn’t know that when she had first woken up. And though, it wasn’t going to be smooth: she was still keeping secrets from them, it was going as well as could be expected. Better even and that meant that she could rest easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at my babies, off fighting together and being cute!There were some major changes to this episodes and I did start setting up the next one, but the next episode will be after a small filler chapter. 
> 
> The fight scenes were some of my most hated scenes but also my favourites because I love describing Cisco's powers. I'm completely and utterly torn between the fact that there will be more fight scenes later on.
> 
> Next chapter we get a small filler chapter of them hanging out because I figure a breather chapter in between such a long one and the next long one and also I think them hanging out and becoming more like a team is so important. 
> 
> Reviews and Kudos are some of my favorite things. Find me on baelfirecassidy for little teasers of other chapters and other stories; also you guys can request drabbles and other things over there from me! Till next time!


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